According to documents filed yesterday, Manhattan resident Anna Chapman has been meeting with a Russian official to exchange information over secret wireless networks every Wednesday since January.
READ: Russian Spy Exchanged Information All Around Manhattan
Ms. Chapman, 28, has either red or brown hair—depending on which Facebook photo you find. According to the New York Post, she “flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan.” The interests on her Facebook are listed as follows: Alma De Agave Tequila, New York Entrepreneur Week, Do It In Person, AMBAR, MostProperties.com, School of Academic and Professional Blogging.
The Post provides a brief background: Ms. Chapman has a masters in economics; she owns an online real estate business and an apartment in the Financial District; she is recently divorced from her husband, a U.K. citizen and has no children.
Around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, an undercover FBI agent met with Ms. Chapman at a cafe in downtown Manhattan posing as a Russian consulate employee. The agent said he needed Ms. Chapman to pass along a fake passport to another female agent, according to the filed complaint.
“Are you ready for this step?” the undercover agent asked.
“Shit, of course,” Ms. Chapman replied.
The meeting was finished at 6 p.m. and Ms. Chapman was followed to Brooklyn where she darted in and out of a Verizon store and a Rite Aid pharmacy and proceeded to toss a Verizon bag into the trash can outside. Inside the discarded bag, FBI agents found an agreement for the purchase of a cell phone in the name of “Irine Kutsov” at “99 Fake Street.” Authorities believe she planned to use the cell phone temporarily so that her calls could not be traced.
Ms. Chapman was arrested at 7:38 p.m. Sunday evening when trying to pass off the fraudulent passport.
At her arraignment Monday evening, federal prosecutor Michael Farbiarz called her a “highly trained agent” and a “practiced deceiver,” according to CBS news. Ms. Chapman reportedly wore a white T-shirt and designer jeans standing before judge Ronald Ellis in a Manhattan federal court. Her attorney, Robert M. Baum, asked the judge to dismiss the charge of conspiracy, saying there is no crime in communicating with a member of a foreign government. But Mr. Farbiarz argued that Ms. Chapman was an “extraordinary agent for Russia” and “is in the control of a foreign government agent.”
Ms. Chapman is being held without bail. Her next court appearance will be July 27.
