Illegals Program

Illegals Program
Ten Russian agents apprehended on June 27, 2010

The Illegals Program (so named by the United States Department of Justice) was a network of Russian sleeper agents under unofficial cover. An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) culminated in the arrest of ten agents on June 27, 2010, and a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States on July 9, 2010.^[1]

The arrested spies were Russian nationals who had been planted in the US by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (known by its Russian abbreviation, SVR), most of them using false identities.^[2] Posing as ordinary American citizens, they tried to build contacts with academics, industrialists, and policymakers to gain access to intelligence. They were the target of a multi-year investigation by the FBI. The investigation, called Operation Ghost Stories, culminated at the end of June 2010 with the arrest of ten people in the US and an eleventh in Cyprus.^[2] The ten sleeper agents were charged with "carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation."^[3][4][5]

The suspect arrested in Cyprus skipped bail the day after his arrest.^[6] A twelfth person, a Russian national who worked for Microsoft, was also apprehended about the same time and deported on July 13, 2010.^[7] Moscow court documents made public on June 27, 2011, revealed that another two Russian agents, who Russia alleges were known to the FBI, managed to flee the US without being arrested.^[8]

Ten of the agents were flown to Vienna on July 9, 2010, soon after pleading guilty to charges of failing to register as representatives of a foreign government. The same day, the agents were exchanged for four Russian nationals, three of whom had been convicted and imprisoned by Russia for espionage (high treason) on behalf of the US and UK.^[9]

On October 31, 2011, the FBI publicly released several dozen still images, clips from surveillance video, and documents related to its investigation in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.^[3][10]

Using forged documents, some of the spies assumed stolen identities of Americans, enrolled at American universities, and joined professional organizations as a means of further infiltrating government circles.^[2][11] Two of the individuals used the names of Richard and Cynthia Murphy and resided in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the mid-1990s, before purchasing a nearby home in suburban Montclair. Another couple named in court documents were journalist Vicky Peláez and Mikhail Vasenkov (using the alias Juan Lazaro) in Yonkers, New York. The court filings allege that couples were arranged in Russia to "co-habit in the country to which they are assigned", going as far as having children together to help maintain their deep covert status.^[11]

The criminal complaints later filed in various federal district courts allege that the Russian agents in the US passed information back to the SVR by messages hidden inside digital photographs, written in disappearing ink, ad hoc wireless networks, and shortwave radio transmissions, as well as by agents swapping identical bags while passing each other in the stairwell of a train station.^[11] Messages and materials were passed in such places as Grand Central Terminal and Central Park.^[12]

The Russian agents were tasked by "Moscow centre" to report about US policy in Central America, US interpretation of Russian foreign policy, problems with US military policy, and "United States policy with regard to the use of the Internet by terrorists".^[13]

According to the media reports, planning by the FBI to have the "illegals" arrested began in mid-June 2010, but the action was hastened reportedly by some members of the group intending to travel outside the US as well as by Anna Chapman's growing concern about having been exposed.^[14][15][16] Vladimir Guriyev was planning to travel to France and possibly Russia, Bezrukov was planning to travel outside the US with his son,^[16] and Chapman, in a telephone call to her father the day before the arrest, said she suspected that she may have been discovered^[14][15] and planned to leave for Moscow in mid-July 2010.^[16]

US authorities arrested ten of the agents involved on June 27, 2010, in a series of raids in Boston, Montclair (New Jersey), Yonkers, and Northern Virginia. They charged the individuals with money laundering and failing to register as agents of a foreign government. No charges were made that the individuals involved gained access to classified material, though contacts were made with a former intelligence official and with a scientist involved in developing bunker buster bombs.^[11][17]

One of the suspects, using the name of Christopher R. Metsos, was detained on June 29, 2010,^[18] while attempting to depart from Cyprus for Budapest, but was released on bail and then disappeared.^[17][19]

There was no evidence that the convicted agents knew each other beyond their respective spouses; military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer believed that they consequently did not constitute a "spy ring".^[20]

Shortly after the arrests, The Guardian commented: "The FBI operation represents the biggest penetration of SVR communications in recent memory. The FBI read their emails, decrypted their intel, read the embedded coded texts on images posted on the net, bugged their mobile phones, videotaped the passing of bags of cash and messages in invisible ink from one agent to another, and hacked into their bogus expenses claims. ... The tradecraft used by the alleged SVR ring was amateurish, and will send shivers down the spine of the rival intelligence organisations in Russia. This was bungling on a truly epic scale. No secrets about bunker-busting bombs were actually obtained, but the network was betrayed. ... To have a spy ring uncovered before they could actually do any serious spying is doubly embarrassing."^[21]

Coinciding with the day of the prisoners' swap, the death of the prominent Russian defector Sergei Tretyakov, who died in the US on June 13, 2010, was reported on July 9, 2010.^[22][23] A Florida medical examiner's report, released on September 20, 2010, cited an accident and a tumour as the cause of death.^[24] In response to allegations in the media that he might have tipped off the US authorities about some of the "illegals",^[25] Tretyakov's co-author Pete Earley, citing anonymous "well-informed" sources, said in July 2010 that Tretyakov had not been privy to the case of Russian "illegals".^[26]

The November 11, 2010, issue of span broadsheet Kommersant carried an article^[27][28] that, with reference to unnamed Russian government sources, contained allegations that the "illegals" were fingered by a senior SVR officer named "Colonel Shcherbakov" (according to an unnamed ex-CIA source, his full name may be Александр Васильевич Щербаков, Alexander Vasilievich Shcherbakov).^[29] The latter, according to the newspaper's sources, headed the "American" unit of the SVR department in charge of "illegals" and left Russia for the US "three days prior to Dmitry Medvedev's June visit to the U.S."^[27] According to other media outlets' sources, the name "Shcherbakov" was fictitious,^[30] and a number of experts and commentators judged many allegations in the article to be dubious or improbable.^{[20][28][31][32]} Nevertheless, some comments made the following day by Russian president Medvedev were interpreted as an indirect confirmation of a high-level defection in the Russian intelligence apparatus.^[33][34] On November 15, 2010, Interfax cited unnamed sources within Russian intelligence as alleging that the real name of the defector who was primarily responsible for uncovering the ten convicted agents was Aleksandr Poteyev (reportedly, his full name is Александр Николаевич Потеев, Aleksandr Nikolayevich Poteyev),^[35][36] who was a colonel in the SVR and was deputy head of the American department within Directorate "S" of SVR ("S" oversees illegals).^[37][36] According to Interfax's unnamed source, a person called Shcherbakov had indeed held a senior position in the SVR and "defected about two years ago".^[37][38]

Anna Chapman—maiden name Anna Vasil'evna Kushchenko (Russian: Анна Васильевна Кущенко)—was arrested with nine others in 2010. According to US authorities, her former name is Anya Kushchenko,^[2][39] and she is a Volgograd native. (According to some reports, she was born in Ukraine.)^[40] Her father was employed in the Russian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. She received her master's in economics degree from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow. She later worked in London at NetJets, Barclays Bank, and other companies.^{[citation needed]}

On July 5, 2010, One India reported that Chapman may have been recruited to become an agent when she was in the United Kingdom, citing Oleg Gordievsky and Alex Chapman as sources, and that an urgent probe was underway in the UK to ascertain whether Chapman organized sleeper cells in the United Kingdom.^[41]

Her LinkedIn social networking site profile said she was CEO of PropertyFinder Ltd, a website selling real estate internationally. Chapman posted photos of herself on the Odnoklassniki ("Classmates") social networking website in Russia where she stated "Russia, Moscow. My favorite place on earth, my native capital!" She also posted photos and profiles on the Facebook and LinkedIn social networking websites.^[42]

Chapman's prior meetings with her Russian handlers were on Wednesdays; not face to face; solely to pass information via encrypted private computer networks^[14] at Barnes & Noble or at Starbucks.^[2][43] Thus her suspicion was aroused when an FBI informant, posing as a Russian consular officer named "Roman", on Saturday, June 26 asked her to come to New York from Connecticut, where she was spending the weekend.^[14] Her suspicions increased when "Roman" turned out to be a man she did not know who asked her to deliver a fake United States passport to another sleeper agent in a face-to-face meeting.^[2] The task of transferring a fake US passport to another Russian agent in a face-to-face meeting was beyond anything that the Moscow Center had previously assigned to her.^{[citation needed]}

After the meeting with "Roman", Chapman bought a new cell phone and two telephone cards.^[14] She called her father in Moscow and another individual in New York, both advising her not to transfer the passport. The FBI monitored the calls.^[14]

Chapman turned in the passport to the 1st Precinct police station in New York but was questioned by the FBI and arrested.^[14][15]

According to her American lawyer, Robert Baum, while in the US jail, she feared she would be deported.^[44] When her deportation became imminent, she said she would go to live in London on her UK passport, but it was subsequently revoked.^[45][46] After her deportation to Russia, in July 2010, Robert Baum reiterated that his client wished to stay in the US. He also said that she was "particularly upset" by the revocation of her UK citizenship and exclusion from the country.^[47]

On August 8, 2010, the United Kingdom's tabloid Sunday Express cited an unidentified "source close to MI6" as saying, "There was a deal on the table just before she caught her connecting flight to Moscow. The secret service intercepted her on her flight back from America to Vienna, where her plane landed to refuel. MI6 were keen to know about other 'illegals'—Russian spy cells—hiding in the United Kingdom, so they made her an offer. In return they offered to give her back British citizenship and allow her to settle in London. Anna was having none of it though and told them in no uncertain terms that she wished to return to Russia."^[48]

In September 2010, German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Chapman said the SVR had forbidden her from saying anything about her activities in the US.^[49]

Mikhail A. Vasenkov
(Juan Lazaro)

Vicky Peláez

Vicky Peláez, a Peruvian national and US citizen,^[50] and Mikhail Anatolyevich Vasenkov (Russian: Михаил Анатольевич Васенков, alias Juan Lazaro),^[51] a Russian citizen, were arrested at their home in Yonkers, New York. Both admitted being Russian agents.^[2][52] The couple have a son together, and Peláez also has a son from a previous marriage.^[53]

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal in early August 2010, the real Juan Lazaro died of respiratory failure in 1947 in Uruguay at age 3, with Vasenkov having presumably used the dead toddler's birth certificate to build a persona.^[54] According to a file kept by the Peruvian Interior Ministry that The Wall Street Journal cited, Vasenkov flew on March 13, 1976, from Madrid to Lima on a Uruguayan passport in the name of Juan Jose Lazaro Fuentes. He bore a letter on a Spanish tobacco company's stationery that said they had hired him for a market survey in Peru. Two years later, he submitted copies of the passport and a 1943 Uruguayan birth certificate with a letter asking Peru's military dictator Francisco Morales Bermúdez (the country was then run by a US-friendly junta) for Peruvian citizenship, which Peru granted in 1979.^[54]

In 1983, "Juan Lazaro" married Vicky Peláez. Peláez was a television reporter in Peru, and a columnist at El Diario La Prensa in New York City. In her writings, Peláez often criticized US policy in Latin America, and supported liberation movements in those countries. In 1985, Peláez and "Lazaro" moved to New York with her son from a previous relationship.^[54]

"Juan Lazaro" wrote a 1990 article for a European publication that spoke "glowingly" of the Shining Path guerrilla movement.^[55] He was described as a "journalist and anthropologist" in the 1998 book Women and Revolution: Global Expression, for which he was a contributing author.^[56] Vasenkov studied at the New School for Social Research and taught a class on Latin American and Caribbean Politics at Baruch College for one semester during the 2008–2009 school year as an adjunct professor.^[57] According to The New York Times June 29, 2010, report, Vasenkov was a vocal opponent of American foreign policy in class: "He maintained that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a money-making ploy for corporate America. He praised President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and disparaged President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia as a pawn for paramilitary groups that have broad control over drug trafficking."^[57] At least one student complained about Vasenkov's teaching and he was let go at the end of the semester.^[57] The department chairman reported that Vasenkov's instruction was not up to standard, resulting in his teaching for only one semester, but that he recalled no controversy over any anti-American views.^[57]

US officials reported that on June 27, 2010, Vasenkov confessed to being a spy and that "Juan Lazaro" was not his real name, though he declined to give his true identity.^[2] He additionally stated he was not born in Uruguay, and that Peláez delivered letters to Russian authorities on his behalf.^[58] It was later reported that Lazaro's real name is Mikhail Vasenkov.^[53] In November 2010, Russian broadsheet Kommersant published Russian anonymous sources' allegations^[27] that while in US custody, Vasenkov had three ribs and a leg broken by investigators trying to extract more information from him—a claim assessed by experts as highly improbable.^[20] The Kommersant article also cited unnamed Russian government sources as saying^[27] that Vasenkov was presented with the SVR personal file on him obtained through a senior SVR defector ("Colonel Shcherbakov"),^[28] whereafter he was forced to own up to his real name.

On August 7, 2010, The Wall Street Journal cited Vasenkov's American lawyer, Genesis Peduto, as saying that his client indicated to him on the phone that he wanted to leave Moscow for Peru: "He doesn't want to stay in Russia. He says he's Juan Lazaro and he's not from Russia and doesn't speak Russian. He wants to be where his wife is going, to her native country, where it will be easier for Juan Jr. to visit. His family comes first."^[54][59][60] In December 2013, Vicky Pelaez left Russia and returned home to Peru; Vasenkov moved there in January 2014.

Vasenkov died in April 2022.^[61]

Andrey Bezrukov [ru]
(Donald Heathfield)

Yelena Vavilova
(Tracey Lee Ann Foley)

Andrey Bezrukov (Russian: Андрей Безруков, alias Donald Howard Heathfield) and Yelena Vavilova (Russian: Елена Вавилова, alias Tracey Lee Ann Foley) admitted being both Russian citizens and Russian agents.^[62] They used Canadian identities stolen for them by the KGB, and lived in Canada for several years.^[63][64]

When arrested, Bezrukov and his cover wife Yelena Vavilova had a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Heathfield had earned an M.P.A. degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was described as a "joiner". Heathfield claimed to have been the son of a Canadian diplomat and to have studied at a school in the Czech Republic. A fellow graduate of the Kennedy School noted that Heathfield kept careful track of his nearly 200 classmates, who included President of Mexico Felipe Calderón. The couple was arrested on June 27, 2010.^[63]

On July 16, 2010, after his arrest and deportation, Harvard revoked Heathfield's degree on grounds of his misrepresentation of his identity on his application.^[65][66]

Bezrukov was a professional member of the World Future Society, described by the Boston Herald as "a think tank on future technologies that holds conferences featuring top government scientists".^[67] Leon Fuerth, a former national security advisor to US Vice President Al Gore, spoke at the World Future Society 2008 conference in Washington, D.C., along with George Washington University professor William Halal.^[68] In a July 2, 2010, Wall Street Journal article, Fuerth is quoted acknowledging he met Heathfield after a speech he gave. In the same article, Halal described his relationship to Heathfield as benign; "I would bump into him at meetings of Federal agencies, think tanks, and the World Future Society. I have no information that's of any security value ... Everything I gave Don was published widely and readily available on the Internet".^[69] Bezrukov was chief executive of Future Map, a consulting company involved in government and corporate preparedness systems.^[70]

Bezrukov's cover wife, Yelena Vavilova (as Tracy Foley), worked for Redfin, a real estate firm in Somerville, Massachusetts.^[71] She claimed she was from Canada, but also traveled on a British passport.^[72]

The agents have two sons, Alexander and Timothy, who were, at the time of their parents' arrest, aged 16 and 20.^[53] The sons said they had no inkling of their parents' real identities.^[73] However, US officials claimed the parents had revealed their true identities to the elder son long before the arrest.^[74] In July 2012, referring to "current and former U.S. officials", The Wall Street Journal reported that the couple had groomed their son, Tim Foley, for a future spy career. He was 20 when his parents were arrested, and had just finished his second year at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He and his younger brother traveled to Russia in July 2010 to meet their parents after their deportations.^[73] Both were unable to return to the US.^[75] The sons, while born in Canada and considering themselves Canadian, and not feeling at home in Moscow, were unable to regain their Canadian citizenship, and were denied visas for Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. They were consequently unable to take up university places they were offered.^[74] By 2018, both sons had won court cases in the Federal Court of Appeal to affirm their Canadian citizenship; the ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada on December 19, 2019.^[76][77] The decision, Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov, set an important administrative law precedent. In March 2018, Alexander (going by his mother's surname of Vavilov) received a Canadian passport and moved back to Canada, while awaiting the Supreme Court verdict.^[78]

The FBI lead agent against the spy couple was Peter Strzok.^[79]

As of August 2019, the couple was living in Moscow; Bezrukov was teaching at a university and doing consulting work for an oil company while Vavilova "also has a consultancy role at a company", according to an article published by The Guardian.^[63] According to her website, she has also published two novels.^[80]

Vladimir Guryev
(Richard Murphy)

Lidiya Guryeva
(Cynthia Murphy)

Vladimir Guryev (Russian: Владимир Гурьев,^[51] alias Richard Murphy) and Lidiya Guriyeva (Russian: Лидия Гурьева, alias Cynthia Murphy) were Russian agents in New Jersey.^[62]

Lidiya Guriyeva attended school in the United States, receiving two undergraduate degrees from New York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.^[81] In 2009, Cynthia Murphy developed contacts in New York City financial circles as a means to obtain details about the global gold market.^[82] Lidiya was trying to cultivate a relationship with Alan Patricof, a venture capitalist who co-chaired Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, with her handlers telling her to "try to build up relations little by little".^[83] Lidiya Guriyeva was Vice President of Morea Financial Services in New York.^[70]

Vladimir Guryev supplied money and equipment to Kutsik (see below) in a 2004 meeting in Columbus Circle, New York and 2009, where $150,000 and a flash drive were given. When the computer program was inoperative, Guryev supplied Kutsik with a laptop computer that Guryev brought from Moscow.^[50]

Vladimir and Lidiya Guriyeva were arrested at their home at 31 Marquette Road in Montclair, New Jersey. The couple have two young daughters, aged 11 and 9 at the time of their parents' arrest.^[53] Vladimir Guriyev used a false birth certificate that claimed he was born in Philadelphia, while his wife said that she was born in New York City as "Cynthia A. Hopkins".^[82] The two earlier lived in an apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, after arriving in the United States in the mid-1990s. They then purchased a suburban Montclair home for $481,000 in 2008. When they purchased it, the couple argued with their handlers as to who would officially own the house, with the ultimate decision being that it would be owned by "Moscow Center".^[82]

Professor Nina Khrushcheva, who served as Vladimir's faculty adviser at The New School for three years starting in 2002, said in July 2010 that she found it difficult to figure out the purported Philadelphia native: "I was always puzzled by the inconsistency between a completely American name and completely Russian behaviour. ... He had a thick Russian accent and an incredibly unhappy Russian personality."^[84]

Vladimir Guryev was criticized by his wife for his poor information gathering; she suggested that he pursue individuals with connections to the White House.^[85] The couple was also tasked with obtaining information about US policy in Afghanistan, the nuclear program of Iran, and the latest Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty talks.^[82] Shortly after the couple's arrest, one of their neighbors quipped: "They couldn't be spies. Look what she did with the hydrangeas."^[86]

Mikhail Kutsik
(Michael Zottoli)

Nataliya Pereverzeva
(Patricia Mills)

Mikhail Kutsik (Russian: Михаил Куцик; cover name Michael Zottoli) and Natalya Pereverzeva (Russian: Наталья Переверзева; cover name Patricia Mills) were agents in Seattle, Washington, and, later, Arlington, Virginia. They appear to be in their 40s. Kutsik came to the US in 2001, and Pereverzeva came in 2003, according to the FBI. He claimed to be American but had a thick accent and she claimed to be Canadian but neighbors said she sounded Yugoslavian. They lived in the Seattle, Washington, area for about two years and both attended the University of Washington, Bothell, where they earned bachelor's degrees in business. Zottoli worked for several different jobs over the years including telecom company accountant, car salesman, and teleconference firm employee. Pereverzeva was a stay-at-home mom who cared for their toddler son named Kenny; a second son was born in late 2009. After Kutsik lost his job in 2009, they moved with their children to Arlington, Virginia, later that year. After their parents were arrested, arrangements were made to send the children to Russia.^[53][87]

Kutsik and Pereverzeva pleaded guilty to "conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country".^[53] They appeared to be an ordinary married couple with two young children.^[53] However, US authorities allege that they had both been spying for Russia in the US since at least 2004. They received specially coded radio transmissions at their high-rise Seattle apartment, and the FBI secretly entered their home, where they found random numbers used to decode the "radiograms". Kutsik received money from Guriyev (Murphy) in Columbus Circle, New York in 2004 while Pereverzeva stood as lookout.^[50] In 2006, the FBI photographed them visiting the area of Wurtsboro, New York, where they dug up a bundle of cash in a field that Metsos^[50] placed there two years earlier. Kutsik visited New York again in 2009, where he evidently received $150,000 in cash and a flash drive from Murphy.^[50][87] Kutsik communicated with the SVR using a laptop that Guryev brought from Moscow after the computer program supplied to him did not function.^[50]

Kutsik and Pereverzeva were arrested on June 27, 2010, at their Arlington, Virginia, home.^[88] Both had family living in Russia and prosecutors argued that bail be denied under the circumstances.^[89]

On January 13, 2011, Russia's oil pipeline monopoly, Transneft, confirmed that Natalya Pereverzeva was appointed an adviser for foreign economic relations to the company's president, Nikolai Tokarev.^[90][91]

Mikhail Semenko (Russian: Михаил Семенко) was one of the two agents who "operated under their true names".^[92] He is reported to have studied for one year at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He also attended school and received graduate degrees in the United States at Seton Hall University, one of the degrees being from the Whitehead School of Diplomacy. He is fluent in English, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. He later worked for the Conference Board in New York City in 2009, and for 2009–2010 reportedly worked at Travel All Russia, an Arlington, Virginia, travel agency, helping Chinese and Hispanic travelers plan trips.^[93] He appeared to be in his late 20s; his neighbors said that he was a stylish man who drove a Mercedes S500 car and spoke Russian to his girlfriend.^[72]

Semenko was first noted by the FBI on June 5 when he used a computer in a restaurant to send encrypted messages, presumably to a car parked in the restaurant lot that had Russian diplomatic plates and was driven by a Russian official who was known to have transferred money to other Russian sleeper agents in 2004.^[94]

On or about June 26, 2010, Semenko met with an undercover FBI agent purporting to be a Russian agent and accepted $5,000, which he delivered to a drop site in an Arlington, Virginia park.^[95] The drop was made at 11:06 a.m. and Semenko was arrested at his residence in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, later that day.^[53][94]

The man known by the name of "Christopher Metsos" was alleged to be the money man and main go-between behind the Illegals Program and the SVR.

On June 29, 2010, acting on an Interpol notice, police arrested the 55-year-old man at the Larnaca International Airport in Cypr