Obituaries : Lauchlin Currie; Roosevelt Adviser Was Accused of Being Soviet Spy

Lauchlin Currie, a top economic adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was accused by a Soviet informer in the McCarthy era of passing information to Soviet agents, has died. He was 91.

Currie, a native Canadian who acquired American and then Colombian citizenship, died Dec. 23 in Bogota of heart trouble, his wife Elvira said Thursday.

A graduate of the London School of Economics and Harvard University, Currie was an adviser to Roosevelt from 1939 to 1945, when he left U.S. government service. During that period he was Roosevelt’s delegate to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-sShek, helping his regime in its fight against invading Japanese forces.

In the late 1940s, Currie was accused of having passed information to a Soviet spy ring, charges he denied in public statements and before congressional investigators. The FBI also said Currie had passed secret data although none of the charges were ever documented.