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Evgeny Buryakov

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Evgeny Buryakov
Евгений Евгеньевич Буряков
Buryakov in 2017
Born
Evgeny Evgenyevich Buryakov

March 2, 1975[1]
Krasnodar Krai
Other namesZhenya
OccupationDeputy Representative of Vnesheconombank
Known forEspionage against the United States
SpouseMarina Buryakova[2][3]
Children1 son, 1 daughter[4]
Conviction(s)Conspiracy
Criminal chargeConspiracy
Penalty30 months in prison

Evgeny Evgenievich Buryakov (Russian: Евгений Евгеньевич Буряков; born c. 1975) is a convicted Russian spy. He was arrested on January 26, 2015, charged with, and pleading guilty to, spying on the United States for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).[5][6] Buryakov was a New York-based Deputy Representative of Vnesheconombank,[7][8] Russia's state-owned national development bank.[9] Buryakov operated with non-official cover, and was thus not entitled to diplomatic immunity.[5] Buryakov conducted his espionage with the assistance of Igor Sporyshev, trade representative of the Russian Federation to New York, and Victor Podobnyy, an attaché to the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations.[5] In exchange for pleading guilty, Buryakov received a reduced sentence of 30 months in federal prison and fined $100,000. He was released early from prison on March 31, 2017, and deported from the United States six days later.[10][11]

Early life and family

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Buryakov was born on March 2, 1975, in Krasnodar Krai,[12] and previously worked at a tax office in Moscow before coming to America.[4] His father, Yevgeny Petrovich Buryakov, is an engineer at the Russian Embassy in Tunis.[13]

His wife, Marina, said they met in Kushchevskaya in 1994 in when she was in high school. They married in May 1999.[13] They have one son and one daughter.[4][14] After Buryakov's arrest in 2015, his mother, Tatiana, returned from Tunis to Moscow to help look after his children.

Espionage

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Prior to working in New York City, Buryakov worked in Pretoria under non-official cover from October 1, 2004, to April 30, 2009.[12][15] Beginning around March 2012, in dozens of occasions at locations in and around Manhattan and the Bronx, Buryakov began meeting with Sporyshev and Podobnyy for the purpose of exchanging information related to their work as intelligence officers operating within the United States at the direction of the Russian SVR.[5] They tasked Buryakov with attempting to recruit New York City residents as intelligence sources, as well as gathering information about U.S. sanctions on Russia and U.S. efforts to develop alternative energy resources.[5] Buryakov worked for Directorate ER of the SVR, which is focused on economic intelligence.[16] Buryakov also came up with questions for the Russian News Agency TASS to ask at the New York Stock Exchange regarding high-frequency trading, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and automatic trading robots.[4][5][17][18]

Beginning in 2013, an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), posing as an analyst for an energy firm, began providing Sporyshev with binders containing industry analyses and bugged with hidden microphones, allowing the FBI to record Sporyshev, Podobnyy, and other Russian intelligence personnel.[19] The undercover agent met Buryakov at a Manhattan office, as well as at casinos in Atlantic City.[20][5]

On April 3, 2017, Carter Page revealed to BuzzFeed that he is "Male-1" in the January 2015 indictments against Evgeny Buryakov, Viktor Podobnyy, and Igor Sporyshev and that Page had met with Podobnyy beginning in 2013.[21] In January 2015, the three Russians were charged with overtly conspiring against the United States and that Buryakov had been an unregistered agent of a foreign government.[21][22][23] In absentia, 40 year old Podobnyy and 27 year old Sporyshev were charged also with aiding and abetting Buryakov, but were not arrested because Podobnyy and Sporyshev, as officials of the Russian government, left the United States under diplomatic immunity.[21][22][23] During the investigations of the three Russians, the United States government used recorded transcripts of their conversations.[21][24] Later, during October 2016 when the FBI and the Justice Department officials obtained a 90-day warrant for electronic surveillance of Carter Page who had ceased being an adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application included Page's relationships with Buryakov, Podobnyy, and Sporyshev as part of the basis for obtaining the warrant.[25][26]

Conviction

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Buryakov's defense, financed by Vnesheconombank, argued that he was protected from the charges by virtue of being an official employee of the Russian government, though this argument was rejected by Judge Richard M. Berman.[14][27] Buryakov ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges against him, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a $100,000 fine.[28][29] He served his sentence at the minimum-security Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, Ohio. He was released early, on March 31, 2017, and deported back to Russia on April 5, 2017.[30]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "USA v. Buryakov" (PDF). p. 1. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  2. ^ United States Department of Justice (January 8, 2016). "Letter by USA as to Evgeny Buryakov addressed to Judge Richard M. Berman from Emil Bove dated January 8, 2016 re: Joint Status Letter Document filed by USA. (Bove, Emil) (Entered: 01/08/2016)". Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Yaduta, Vladimir (January 12, 2016). "Wife of alleged Russian spy Buryakov to be deposed in Ireland". Russian Legal Information Agency.
  4. ^ a b c d Daly, Michael (February 2015). "Russian Spies and the Nuns Next Door".
  5. ^ a b c d e f g United States Department of Justice (January 26, 2015). "Buryakov, et al Complaint" (PDF).
  6. ^ Weiser, Benjamin (January 26, 2015). "3 Men Are Charged With Serving as Secret Agents for Russia in New York". The New York Times.
  7. ^ Buryakov, Evgeny. "Evgeny Buryakov". LinkedIn.
  8. ^ Vnesheconombank. "Vneshekonombank". Vnesheconombank via The Internet Archive. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Deputy Representative: Evgeny Buryakov
  9. ^ Luhn, Alec (January 27, 2015). "Moscow condemns arrest of 'spy' Yevgeny Buryakov as 'anti-Russian move'". The Guardian.
  10. ^ "Russian spy Evgeny Buryakov deported from United States". ABC News. April 6, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  11. ^ Kates, Graham (March 31, 2017). "Banker who worked as Russian secret agent to be released early, deported". CBS News. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  12. ^ a b Southern District of New York (July 6, 2015). "Document 52-2" (PDF).
  13. ^ a b Козловский, Владимир Русская (May 25, 2016). "Прокурор и защита добились мягкого приговора для Бурякова в США". BBC Russia. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  14. ^ a b Hays, Tom (July 29, 2015). "Judge refuses to toss out US spying charges against banker". Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  15. ^ Ferrigno, Lorenzo (March 11, 2016). "Court documents: FBI bugged binders to eavesdrop on Russian spy ring". CNN. Podobnyy was recorded telling Sporyshev that Buryakov had been in South Africa under what the prosecutors say was "non-official cover between approximately 2004 and 2009."
  16. ^ Babad, Michael (January 27, 2015). "Why would an alleged Russian spy want to know about ETFs?". The Globe and Mail.
  17. ^ Baumann, Nick (January 26, 2016). "The FBI Just Arrested an Alleged Russian Spy Who Wanted to Know How to Trigger an Economic Meltdown". Mother Jones.
  18. ^ Berman, Russell (January 26, 2015). "Cold War Echoes in a New Russian Spy Ring". The Atlantic.
  19. ^ Raymond, Nate (March 9, 2016). "FBI penetrated New York-based Russian spy ring using hidden recorders". Reuters.
  20. ^ Cohen, Shawn; Golding, Bruce (January 26, 2015). "Russians charged with plotting to recruit NYC co-eds as spies". New York Post.
  21. ^ a b c d Watkins, Ali (April 3, 2017). "A Former Trump Adviser Met With A Russian Spy: Carter Page told BuzzFeed News that he had been in contact with at least one Russian spy working undercover out of Moscow's UN office in 2013". BuzzFeed. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  22. ^ a b "Russian Banker Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To 30 Months In Prison For Conspiring To Work For Russian Intelligence: Evgeny Buryakov, a/k/a "Zhenya," Who Worked For Russian Intelligence Under "Non-Official Cover" As A Banker In Manhattan, Was Also Ordered To Pay A $10,000 Fine And Ordered Removed From The United States". Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of New York. May 25, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  23. ^ a b Yuhas, Alan (January 26, 2015). "US charges Russian 'spies' suspected of trying to recruit New Yorkers: Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobny allegedly conspired to gather intelligence on behalf of Russia and to recruit Americans". The Guardian. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  24. ^ Harding, Luke (February 3, 2018). "Why Carter Page Was Worth Watching: There's plenty of evidence that the former Trump campaign adviser, for all his quirks, was on suspiciously good terms with Russia". Politico. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  25. ^ Nakashima, Ellen; Barrett, Devlin; Entous, Adam (April 11, 2017). "FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump adviser Carter Page". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  26. ^ Phillips, Ariella (August 3, 2017). "Former Trump adviser Carter Page under FISA warrant since 2014". Washington Examiner. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  27. ^ Ax, Joseph (May 12, 2015). "Accused Russian spy's U.S. legal fees paid by Moscow-owned bank". Reuters.
  28. ^ Katersky, Aaron; Date, Jack; Ferran, Lee. "Russian Spy Pleads Guilty, Walked Into FBI 'Trap'". ABC News. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
  29. ^ Weiser, Benjamin (March 11, 2016). "Bank Employee Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Work as Secret Russian Agent". The New York Times.
  30. ^ Layne, Nathan (April 5, 2017). Reinhold, Toni (ed.). "Russian banker convicted in U.S. spy ring deported to Moscow". Reuters. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
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