Prosecutors Say Ex-BND Chief Bought About 2,000 Documents

About 2,000 documents, many marked for internal use, are at the center of a German espionage case. Prosecutors say former intelligence chief August Hanning paid a former aide for confidential files over more than a decade. The allegations are serious, but investigators have not publicly named the foreign intelligence services or shown what harm the files caused. ^6,3

Those documents allegedly came from Manfred D., who had been Hanning’s chief of staff and later held the same role for other leaders of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND. The agency gathers information abroad on political, economic and military matters. Hanning led it from 1998 to 2005, then entered private consulting. Prosecutors say the men made their deal in 2010, and Manfred D. supplied files through 2022. ^6,7

The consulting work matters because prosecutors allege Hanning used the material to prepare an analysis for an officer from a foreign intelligence service. They have not said whether that analysis reached the person it was meant for, and have not identified the country involved. German media reports say the case is not linked to Russia, while other reports describe a connection to an investigation involving the abduction of businesswoman Christina Block’s children. Neither point establishes who, if anyone, received the secrets. ^5,10,2

The secrets may include sensitive briefings and information from foreign partner agencies, according to German media reports. Their full contents and any damage remain unclear, so the arrests do not by themselves prove a past breach. Hanning and Manfred D. were arrested on October 6, 2026, and prosecutors say both were due before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice. That court process will determine the next step in the case. ^2,6,3