
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994                   TAG: 9403120166
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

SPY SUSPECT'S SUMS WORRIED BANK, NOT CIA

A Virginia bank in which accused CIA spy Aldrich Ames allegedly stashed payments from the Russians notified the government of suspicious deposits in his account but federal officials never acted on the warnings, government sources said Friday.

The notifications were on file at the Internal Revenue Service after CIA security officials began having qualms about Ames' wealth, but the CIA never asked the IRS whether Ames made excessive deposits, the sources said.

The crucial information failed to reach the CIA or the FBI, which conducts counterintelligence investigations - and both the House and Senate Intelligence committees are trying to learn why.

Dominion Bank (now First Union of Virginia) filed at least two currency reports with the IRS on Ames and his wife, Rosario. The reports were made after the couple deposited tens of thousands of dollars in cash in individual amounts below $10,000 - the normal threshold for triggering such reports, the sources said.

Ames' CIA superiors became suspicious after he paid $540,000 in cash for a house in 1989 and questioned him about his finances but they reportedly never asked the IRS for bank reports. Ames' claims that he bought the house with money he inherited.

by CNB