Three Russians charged with spying in US allegedly sought economic secrets
Three Russians allegedly sought information on Wall Street and US sanctions, while one said he wanted some James Bond flair in tedious job
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 28 January, 2015, 6:17am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 28 January, 2015, 6:17am
Bloomberg in New York
The three alleged spies sought information on the effect of US economic sanctions on Russia and also tried to get information on the New York Stock Exchange's Exchange Traded Funds. Photo: AFP
Three Russians charged by the US with espionage allegedly sought secrets tied to the New York Stock Exchange and US economic sanctions on Russia, even while one bemoaned his tedious job's lack of a James Bond flair.
The US investigation of the alleged spy ring started within months of the FBI's June 2010 arrest of 10 Russian agents dubbed the "Illegals", who had been on "deep cover" assignments, some living in the US for as long as a decade. That year, each of the 10 pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, after which they were returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange.
One of the three named in charges made public on Monday, Evgeny Buryakov, 39, was arrested in the New York borough of the Bronx. He appeared before a Manhattan federal judge who said he was a flight risk and ordered him held without bail.
"His cover has now been blown," US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn said.
He has "every incentive to flee", she said.
Evgeny Buryakov sits in court in New York. Photo: Reuters
Buryakov, along with Igor Sporyshev, 40, and Victor Podobnyy, 27, worked for the Russian Federation's Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, US Attorney General Eric Holder said.
The three alleged spies sought information on the effect of US economic sanctions on Russia and also tried to get information on the New York Stock Exchange's Exchange Traded Funds, according to the complaint. Buryakov and the other men were charged with being part of a conspiracy for Buryakov to act as an unregistered foreign agent, a crime punishable by as long as five years in prison.
Buryakov also is charged with being an unregistered agent, while Podobnyy and Sporyshev, who are no longer in the US, are accused of aiding and abetting that crime.
If convicted on that count, all three face as long as 10 years in prison.
The Russian embassy in Washington didn't respond to an email seeking comment on the allegations. RIA, that nation's state-run news agency, said the embassy is analysing the allegations and that its spokesman, Nikolay Lyashchenko, had no immediate comment on them.
Buryakov, also known as Zhenya, used a job as an employee at a Manhattan branch of a Russian bank as his cover, according to the US. "The purpose of his presence here is to gather information under the guise of his actions as a private citizen," Assistant US Attorney Adam Fee told Netburn in court. The US has "hundreds of hours" of recordings, made by an undercover agent who posed as a bank customer, of Buryakov and of other Russian spies who work in New York and report to Moscow, Fee said.
"These recordings caught them red-handed," he said.
Sporyshev claimed to work at the New York office of Russia's trade mission in the US and Victor Podobnyy as an attache to Russia's permanent mission at the United Nations.
They complained to each other in recorded conversations that they were bored.
Podobnyy said the job was nothing like he expected, and nothing like a James Bond movie.
"Of course, I wouldn't fly helicopters," he said in a recorded conversation, according to the complaint. "But, pretend to be someone else at a minimum."
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Inquiry opens into death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko
As Alexander Litvinenko lay dying from radiation poisoning in 2006, he named the man he thought had ordered his murder: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
More than eight years on and with the UK-Russia relations at their iciest since the cold war, a public inquiry was due to begin yesterday into the killing of the Russian intelligence agent turned Kremlin critic, who was poisoned in London with the radioactive isotope polonium-210. Britain has accused Russia of involvement - a claim Moscow denies.
Litvinenko's widow, Marina, hopes the judge-led inquiry will provide answers about what her lawyer has called "an act of state-sponsored nuclear terrorism on the streets of London".
But parts of the inquiry will be held in private, and judge Robert Owen says it's "inevitable" that some of his final report will remain secret for security reasons.
Associated Press
