Otto Verber and Kurt L. Ponger, both naturalized citizens of the United States, had returned to Austria with their families after service in the United States Army in Europe during World War II. Both men had come to the United States to evade the possibility of being killed by the Nazis during the war. Ponger was born on July 29, 1913, in Vienna, Austria. Verber was born in 1921, in Austria. Ponger was married to Otto Verber's sister, Vera, in 1940. After the war, Ponger was employed by the Office of the Chief Council at the International War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremburg, Germany. Verber and his wife left the United States after the war and moved to Nuremburg, where he was employed as an interrogator with the International War Crimes Tribunal. After the trials, he and his wife moved to Vienna. Ponger and his family also moved to Vienna. In 1949, Ponger was recruited by the Soviet Intelligence and Ponger recruited Verber into the fold, as he had contacts among the employees of the United States Armed Forces in Austria. They reported their information to their Soviet contact until their arrest, in January of 1953, by the United States Military authorities in Vienna. In June of 1953, they were sentenced and imprisoned in United States Federal penitentiaries. Verber received a sentence of three years, four months to ten years in prison. Ponger was sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison.
|
