Harold Nicholson sent his son to collect Russian money from prison

Harold Nicholson directed a fresh Russian intelligence scheme from his prison cell. On January 18, 2011, a federal judge in Oregon sentenced him to another eight years after guilty pleas to conspiring to act as a foreign government’s agent and to launder money internationally. The term was consecutive to the 283 months he had received for his 1997 espionage conviction. The new case centered on what he directed from inside the federal prison at Sheridan.

Nicholson admitted that between 2006 and December 2008 he worked through his son Nathaniel. During prison visits, the father supplied information intended for Russia and instructions for meetings with Russian agents. The admitted travel scheme included San Francisco, Mexico City, Lima and Nicosia. At those meetings Nathaniel delivered information and collected payments for his father’s earlier espionage. Harold also directed how the money should move covertly and how it should be distributed among family members.

Nathaniel’s separate guilty plea supplied a ledger of the journeys. In August 2009, he admitted returning to Portland from Mexico City in December 2006 with about $10,000, then from another Mexico trip with roughly $9,080 in July 2007. A December 2007 return from Lima brought about $7,013. He came back from Cyprus in December 2008 with about $9,500. The sums were identified as payments for his father’s past espionage, rather than ordinary family assistance from a foreign benefactor.

The son agreed to forfeit the $9,500 seized by the FBI after the Cyprus trip and to testify about the scheme. His admissions also included obtaining information from his father at a Russian agent’s request. The two plea records describe a system built around prison visits, overseas travel and family disbursements, rather than a single illicit payment. They also establish the unusual continuity of the case: the father’s punishment for betraying intelligence had become the setting for his next criminal arrangement.