Howard was one of two former CIA employees (identified by Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko) who sold classified information to the KGB.
Although placed under surveillance by the FBI at his Albuquerque home Howard (who had been trained in surveillance and evasion tactics) eluded spotters and fled the country.
Howard allegedly had met with Soviet agents in Austria in September 1984 and received payment for classified information.
Howard revealed to the KGB the identity of a valuable US intelligence source in Moscow, now presumed dead or under sentence of execution.
Five American diplomats were expelled from the Soviet Union as persona non grata as a result of information provided by Howard.
On 7 August 1986, the Soviet news agency TASS announced that Howard had been granted political asylum in the USSR.
Howard's wife, a former CIA secretary, was never prosecuted for helping her husband flee the United States. She and Howard's son, Lee, traveled at least once a year to Russia to visit Howard.
On July 12, 2002 his body was found laying face up in the garden outside the house in a small town 10 miles north of Moscow.