A well-known cousin of the late President Jerry John Rawlings, Michael Agbotui Soussoudis, has reportedly passed away in South Africa on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.
The specifics surrounding his death remain unclear, though it has been linked to lung failure.
Mr Soussoudis is remembered for his involvement in the Sharon Scranage espionage scandal, which saw classified information passed from Sharon Scranage, a CIA clerk, to him while he served as an intelligence officer under Rawlings’ Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime.
Their relationship began between May 1983 and October 1984, with Soussoudis reportedly seducing Scranage and convincing her to reveal confidential U.S. intelligence.
Scranage, who worked in Ghana at the time, was said to have informed her superiors about the relationship but was only advised to “be careful.”
Through this relationship, Soussoudis obtained the identities of Ghanaians working as CIA informants and plans for a coup against the Ghanaian government.
He passed this intelligence to the late Kojo Tsikata, Ghana’s intelligence chief and another cousin of his.
The affair first came to light in 1983 when a dinner guest at Scranage’s home noticed a revealing photo of Soussoudis.
When Scranage returned to the U.S. in 1985, she failed a polygraph test, leading to the CIA’s discovery of the extent of the classified information she had provided to Soussoudis.
U.S. authorities accused Scranage of giving Soussoudis sensitive documents and the names of nearly all CIA operatives in Ghana. This case is a prime example of a “honey trap” being used to extract intelligence.
After an FBI investigation, Scranage cooperated with authorities and helped them arrest Soussoudis.
He was later released in a trade deal, exchanging him for Ghanaians arrested as CIA spies, who were deported to the U.S. and stripped of their citizenship.
Scranage faced charges for espionage and violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. She pled guilty to three of the 18 charges and was sentenced to five years in prison, which was later reduced to two years, of which she served eight months.
After her relationship with Soussoudis was exposed, Scranage helped the FBI lure him to the U.S., where he was arrested at a motel in Virginia. Soussoudis was sentenced to 20 years in prison during a closed court hearing but was released in exchange for eight CIA operatives whose identities had been compromised in Ghana.
Upon his release, Soussoudis was sent back to Ghana, where he was greeted by thousands of supporters in December 1985. The information he obtained from Scranage led to the arrest of eight Ghanaians who had been spying for the CIA. These individuals received harsh sentences, with some facing life imprisonment, and one CIA informant was allegedly killed after being exposed.
In addition, the intelligence Soussoudis gathered helped foil a planned coup, reportedly supported by the CIA, involving a shipment of heavy weapons.
The weapons, along with mercenaries, were on a ship headed for Ghana when the crew mutinied, causing the ship to return to Brazil.
The mercenaries were later arrested, though they eventually escaped and returned to the U.S.
The eight Ghanaians arrested for spying included high-ranking officials such as Naval Captain Oppong, Colonel Bray, Abel Edusei, Adu Gyamfi, and Major John Kwaku Awuakye. These individuals were stripped of their Ghanaian citizenship and relocated to the U.S. in the Virginia and Washington, D.C. area.
According to FBI affidavits and declassified CIA intelligence from 2011, Kojo Tsikata shared the intelligence Scranage provided with Cuba, Libya, and East Germany.