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by mhh__ 2132 days ago
At the near-height of the Cold War, the US had a spy called Adolf Tolkachev. He has - somewhat romantically - been called the "Billion dollar spy", because he handed over strategically important information about Russian military capabilities (RADAR ceilings and the like). This allowed the US to change course, and spend the money on the right things. He was later betrayed by Aldrich Ames and/or Robert Hanssen.

It's not quite that simple.