Alan Phillip Gross (born May 2, 1949) is a former United States government contractor employed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In December 2009 he was arrested in Cuba while working on a program funded under the 1996 Helms–Burton Act, which explicitly called for overthrow of Castro's government. He was prosecuted in 2011 after being accused of crimes against the Cuban state for furtively bringing military-grade communication equipment designed to evade detection to members of Cuba's Jewish community. After being accused of working for American intelligence services in January 2010, he was convicted of spying and for "acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state" in March 2011. US sources widely rejected the idea that Gross was a spy, though some noted the "covert" nature of Gross's work. Gross noted in his field reports his awareness of the risks he was taking in his mission. He was released from Cuban prison on December 17, 2014 and returned to the US in exchange for the release and return of three Cubans convicted of espionage. While serving his prison sentence, his wife Judy Gross, sued Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI) and USAID for $60 million in federal court. The company settled for an undisclosed sum. The amount is in addition to the $3.2 million that USAID agreed to pay Gross and DAI in the November before his release. Life and career Gross was born in Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York state into a Jewish family to Fred Gross (1921–2006) and Evelyn H. Gross (née Kessel; 1922–2014). He was raised at his hometown and in Baltimore. He studied sociology at the University of Maryland and social work at Virginia Commonwealth University, before moving to Potomac, Maryland. He had a long career as an international development worker who had been active in some 50 countries and territories across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was setting up satellite communications systems to NGOs. In 2001, he founded JBDC LLC, a small company that earned less than $70,000 in 2009, which supported "Internet connectivity in locations where there [is] little or no access," according to The New York Times. Gross and his wife Judy lived in Potomac, Maryland, a Washington, D.C. suburb. The couple have two daughters, Shira and Nina. Arrest and trial Background Gross was working as a subcontractor to Development Alternatives Inc.