London, July 16 (ANI): Despite the seeming suddenness of Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri's decision to return to Iran after years working as a CIA asset and more than a year of resettlement in the US, the CIA began to sense he may not have wanted to come out of Iran after all, despite the offer of five million dollars and resettlement in the United States.
In Amiri's case, according to The Telegraph, the resettlement was rocky and he began to long for his son.
Sometime this spring, in a moment of weakness, Amiri called home.
The CIA, while continually testing and examining Amiri to ensure he was not a double agent, began to reexamine his case after the call home.
That fateful phone call set off a chain of events that finally ended yesterday when Amiri landed in Tehran and embraced his wife and son.
Amiri is reported to have received five million dollars for giving information to the CIA, but it is not actually known how much money he left behind while choosing to return to Tehran.
ABC News quotes officials in Washington as saying that: "Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the sanctions against Iran."
The CIA places these kinds of funds in escrow so that an informant is only paid bit by bit, at the agency's discretion. Keeping the money in escrow prevents an asset from grabbing the money all at once.
It is unknown how much money Amiri was able to collect prior to his return to Iran, but the bulk of the cash remains in US hands.
"He's gone, but the money's still here," a US official said. (ANI)
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