Redl grew to possess lavish tastes and the funding from the Russians helped to afford him the lifestyle he desired. Revealed to the Russians identities of Austrian spies working in Russia as well as secret codes. In 1902, provided the Russians with Austria's contingency plans in case of a war. The Austrian Foreign Office became aware that their contingency plans had fallen in the hands of the Russians, but had no idea who had delivered the plans. General Baron von Giesl turned the matter over to Redl, the Chief of Counterespionage. Redl was in the awkward position of having to conduct a search - for himself. He advised his Russian contacts of his dilemma and not wanting to lose such a valuable information resource, they gave a list of less-important Austrians spying for Russia. Redl then "exposed" these agents, thus becoming a hero of the Austrian intelligence community.

Promoted to head up all espionage efforts in Austria in 1907. In his position, conferred with intelligence officers from other nations, often discussing secret information with friendly allies, and then passing this information along to the Russians. Promoted again in 1912 to the position of Chief of Staff to General von Giesl. Giesl headed up the Army Corps then in Prague. Redl quickly passed along information about Giesl's troops to his Russian contacts. For his treachery Redl was well rewarded. He used his ill gotten gains to purchases several houses in Vienna as well as a palatial estate outside of the city. He purchased several of the most expensive cars in the world and a huge mansion in Prague, complete with an assembly of some of the finest champagne in the world.

On March 2, 1913, two letters, identically addressed were delivered to a postal box in Vienna. When nobody claimed them, they were returned to the post office in East Prussia from which they had been sent. The letters were sent back to Austria, this time to Redl's successor a Chief of Counterintelligence Maximilian Ronge. They were sent to him by the head of German counterintelligence Walther Nicholai who found them to contain large sums of money, with no letters accompanying them. Ronde recognized that the letters had originated from Eydtkuhnen, an area of East Prussia known for Russian espionage. Sensing that the money might be a payoff to a spy, he took the money back to the Vienna Post Office. He installed a button at the post office which rang through to the police station nearby. He instructed the postal clerks to push the buzzer if anyone came in to retrieve the letter.