Felix Bloch (diplomatic Officer) - FBI Investigation

FBI Investigation

In May 1989, Bloch had a dinner meeting in Paris with a man he says he knew as "Pierre Bart," a fellow stamp collector. Bloch at this time was stationed in Washington, D.C. but was one of the top European specialists in the State Department. The meeting occurred during an official visit by Bloch to France. "Bart" was a Soviet agent who lived in Paris and had previously lived in Vienna under the name Reino Gikman. Unknown to Bloch, the entire meeting was closely watched by French counterintelligence agents. Surveillance showed that Bloch had taken a shoulder bag of unknown contents to the meeting, which Bloch left with "Bart" as the dinner left. Bloch would later state that the bag contained stamps which he left for Bart. Bloch would later have a meeting with Gikman in Brussels, but the American authorities did not ask Belgian authorities to observe the meeting, in part because of fears the Belgian intelligence service was penetrated by the Soviets. The CIA observed parts of the meeting but could not determine if Bloch passed any documents to Glikman.Shortly afterward, the surveillance project came to an end: Bloch received a phone call from Glikman, taped by the FBI, alluding to an "illness" on Glikman's part and the expressed hope that Bloch did not receive the same thing. As this call came three weeks after their last meeting, it appeared highly unlikely the true subject of the call was a communicable ailment such as cold or flu. It would later emerge that the veracity of "Gikman's" claimed birth date and other identity details could not be verified. Gikman and Bloch were known to have lived in Vienna at about the same time, and American officials would come to suspect Gikman had been Bloch's handler. However there is no proof the two men met at that time.

A New York Times story in 1989 stated that Bloch had frequented a prostitute in Vienna, paying her as much as $10,000 yearly for sadomasochistic sex, and that the FBI had called the prostitute to testify regarding their encounters to a federal grand jury. According to the story, agents suspected the Soviets were either indulging Bloch's tastes, or had blackmailed him into becoming their spy. In any event, Bloch appeared to lack any financial motive for spying, as in the 1980s his assets were apparently in the range of $300,000 to $1 million. State Department officials at times have suggested they thought Bloch may have sold classified information merely out of pique at being passed over for promotions.

The Gikman phone call regarding the "illness" led U.S. officials to believe their investigation had been exposed. They therefore decided to confront Bloch. Agents demanded that he confess to spying, but he steadfastly held to his explanation about stamp collecting. The lack of any conclusive evidence against Bloch led to an extraordinary media firestorm. Bloch was suspended from his job. For the next six months, Bloch was followed everywhere by a horde of FBI agents and news reporters, who quickly learned of the extraordinary news that a high-ranking diplomat was suspected of spying. Bloch, an avid walker, once led the following horde on a 22-mile trek. In an absurd incident, Bloch was once sitting in a park when children began to taunt him as a "spy" and a man identifying himself as a Vietnam veteran hit Bloch in the head; at which point an FBI agent persuaded the man to leave. Another incident featured a staged "reenactment" of a fictionalized meeting between Bloch and a Soviet agent by a network news crew; the network's anchor later apologized on air for the incident. In November 1989 the FBI withdrew its surveillance and the media circus began to subside.