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Red-hot beauty snared in Russia 'espionage' shock
A ring of 11 Russian moles right out of a Cold War spy novel was smashed yesterday -- and among those busted was a flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan. Classic honey-trap material Russian national Anna Chapman -- a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters in economics, an online real-estate business, a fancy Financial District apartment and a Victorias Secret body -- had been passing information to a Russian government official every Wednesday since January, authorities charged. In one particularly slick spy exchange on St. Patricks Day, Chapman pulled a laptop out of a tote bag in a bookstore at Warren and Greenwich streets in the West Village while her handler lurked outside, receiving her message on his own computer, the feds said. A similar exchange occurred at a Midtown coffee shop at 47th Street and 8th Ave. The FBI claimed the two were corresponding via a secret online network. Last week, an undercover agent pretending to be a Russian official arranged a meeting to talk about the weekly laptop exchanges, pretending to be ready to send the sexy spy on a mission to deliver a fake passport to another female agent, according to the federal complaint. "Are you ready for this step?" he asked. "S¤-¤-¤-, yes," Chapman allegedly gushed. The undercover instructed her on how she would recognize her fellow spy and how to report back on the handoff, the feds said. "Havent we met in California last summer?" the spy expecting the fake passport was supposed to say. Chapman was to respond, "No, I think it was the Hamptons," according to the FBI. Chapman allegedly was also supposed to hold a magazine under her arm so her counterpart would recognize her, and plant a stamp on a wall map indicate the handoff was a success. It never took place. Another spy-movie-like maneuver took place in Brooklyn shortly after the meeting with the undercover agent when Chapman darted into a Verizon phone store to buy a cell using the name Irine Kutsov, and an address of "99 Fake Street," the feds said. She only planned to use the phone to "avoid detection of her conversations," the FBI alleged. At her arraignment last night, she was held without bail as federal prosecutor Michael Farbiarz called her a "highly trained agent" and a "practiced deceiver." "Well, those Ukraine girls really knock me out They leave the West behind And Moscow girls make me sing and shout That Georgia's always on m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-my mind! " The other suspects, including four middle-aged couples living seemingly ordinary professional lives, were supplied with bogus names and documents and told by Moscow to become "Americanized," infiltrate "policymaking circles" in the United States and send secrets back to the Kremlin, the feds said. Posted by: Goober Crealet3411 2010-06-29 |
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