Kiwi caught up in KGB spying scandal

New Zealand diplomat was spirited out of Moscow after being caught in a KGB sting in the 1970s, it was reported today.

Papers obtained by The Dominion Post show former trade commissioner Ian Noel Clark and his family were secretly whisked out of Moscow after the Soviet Union's spy service threatened to expose him over blackmarket currency dealings in 1978.

The KGB had threatened to publish damaging photographs and other details of the dealings in the Communist newspaper Pravda.

News Zealand officials believed that the KGB wanted to turn Mr Clark into a Soviet spy and access cipher equipment and codes used by New Zealand diplomats to share embassy and intelligence secrets with their allies.

The paper revealed that on his return home Mr Clark was cleared by the New Zealand SIS but senior staff at the Foreign Ministry questioned the decision with the SIS director at the time.

Mr Clark continued working for the then Trade and Industry Department for two years before joining the economic division of Agriculture and Fisheries as a senior manager.

Mr Clark, who now lives in Gladstone in the Wairarapa, declined to talk to The Dominion Post.

- NZPA