For eight years, CIA spy suspect Aldrich Ames left a trail of fat and frequent bank deposits in the USA and elsewhere.
Eventually, those deposits triggered a government-required warning to the Internal Revenue Service.
The Los Angeles Times said Saturday that Dominion Bank of Virginia reported Ames in the late 1980s or early 1990s because officials were concerned he was "structuring" his deposits - in amounts often ranging from $ 3,000 to $ 8,500 - to avoid a money laundering law that requires banks to report deposits over $ 9,999.
FBI and CIA officials would not comment on Saturday's report.
But banking expert Warren Heller said Sunday he isn't surprised that no one in the bureaucracy appeared to take action at the time.
"After the fact, when it looks like you should have been looking for this guy, it seems easy," said Heller, research director for VERIBANC Inc., a bank rating and research firm.
"But if there are zillions of something filed, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
He says millions of similar reports are filed annually, most on legitimate business deposits.
Although Ames had been under suspicion earlier, a Soviet defector is said to have fingered him as a CIA mole last May, prompting a full criminal investigation.
The CIA won't comment on the case. And prosecutors won't say when the agency learned of Ames' wealth.
The FBI arrested Ames, 52, and his wife, Rosario, 41, last month. They're accused of selling U.S. secrets to the Soviets and Russia for more than $ 2.5 million.
A grand jury considering espionage charges against the couple is expected to finish deliberations by March 23.
CIA director James Woolsey said last week that a panel of intelligence experts will review the agency's security practices.
He said the agency's inspector general will conduct a similar review looking at specific questions raised by Congress, including how Ames' wealth could go unnoticed by agency officials.
Robert Heibel, coordinator of the Research/Intelligence Analyst Program at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., faults a 1989 ruling by Congress that bars the CIA from secretly probing employees' credit.
"You can't investigate somebody and keep it secret if the credit bureau is going to let them know you've been asking about them," said Heibel, a former FBI agent.
