Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is an aerospace engineer who was sentenced in 1985 after being convicted of trying to sell stealth bomber secrets to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Biography

Cavanagh was arrested at a hotel in

Commerce, California Commerce is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 12,823 at the 2010 census, up from 12,568 at the 2000 census. It is usually referred to as the City of Commerce to distinguish it from ...

, in December 1984, by

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agents posing as Soviet spies. Cavanagh worked at Northrop, and at the time was undergoing a divorce, and was heavily in debt. He tried to sell classified technology and information for $25,000, . He was sentenced to life in prison. He was released on parole on March 1, 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavanagh, Thomas Patrick 1945 births American aerospace engineers American people convicted of attempted spying against the United States American people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Espionage in the United States Living people People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 People paroled from life sentence Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government