German federal prosecutors arrested August Hanning on Tuesday. He ran Germany's foreign intelligence service for seven years, and prosecutors say he later paid for its files to use in his consulting business.
Prosecutors say Hanning spent 12 years paying his former chief of staff, Manfred D., for the BND's files. Hanning and D. struck the deal in the spring of 2010, four years after Hanning left the agency: D. would pass him BND intelligence for payment, and Hanning would use it in his private consulting. About 2,000 documents reached him by June 2022.
The files turned up in a kidnapping case. Christina Block, heiress to a German steakhouse chain, is on trial in Hamburg over the abduction of her children from Denmark, and in September 2025 Hamburg prosecutors searched Hanning's premises in that case and found the BND material. In early May, federal prosecutors took over the case, and the BND is now helping investigate its former president.
Prosecutors say Hanning passed information built partly on those files to a foreign intelligence service, and they have not said which one.
