Evgeny Buryakov

Evgeny Buryakov
Residence Riverdale, The Bronx, New York City[1]
Other names Zhenya
Occupation Deputy Representative of Vnesheconombank
Known for Espionage against the United States
Criminal charge Conspiracy to act as an unlawful agent of a foreign government
Criminal penalty 30 months in prison
Spouse(s) Marina Buryakova[2][3]
Children 1 son, 1 daughter[4]

Evgeny Buryakov was arrested on January 26, 2015 and charged with, and plead 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]

Early life

Buryakov is believed to come from Kushchevskaya, and previously worked at a tax office in Moscow.[4][10] He has one son and one daughter.[4][11]

Espionage

Prior to working in New York City, Buryakov allegedly worked in South Africa under non-official cover from approximately 2004 to 2009.[10][12] In America, Sporyshev and Podobnyy tasked Buryakov with attempting to recruit New York City residents as intelligence sources, as well as gathering information about American sanctions on Russia and American efforts to develop alternative energy resources.[5] Buryakov worked for Directorate ER of the SVR, which is focused on economic intelligence.[13] 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][14][15]

Beginning in 2013, an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (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.[16] The undercover agent met Buryakov at a Manhattan office, as well as at casinos in Atlantic City.[1][5]

Conviction

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.[11][17] Buryakov ultimately plead guilty to the charges against him, and is expected to serve a sentence of 30 months in prison.[18][19]

References

  1. 1 2 Cohen, Shawn; Golding, Bruce (26 January 2015). "Russians charged with plotting to recruit NYC co-eds as spies". New York Post.
  2. ↑ United States Department of Justice (8 January 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)" (PDF). Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ Yaduta, Vladimir (12 January 2016). "Wife of alleged Russian spy Buryakov to be deposed in Ireland". Russian Legal Information Agency. The U.S. government mulls deposing Marina Buryakova, the wife of Yevgeny Buryakov who has been charged with posing as a banker while participating in a Russian spy ring operating in New York City.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Daly, Michael (February 2015). "Russian Spies and the Nuns Next Door".
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 United States Department of Justice (26 January 2015). "Buryakov, et al Complaint" (PDF).
  6. ↑ Weiser, Benjamin (26 January 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 (27 January 2015). "Moscow condemns arrest of 'spy' Yevgeny Buryakov as 'anti-Russian move'". The Guardian. Yevgeny Buryakov, an employee of state-owned VEB bank, was arrested on Monday and charged with gathering “economic intelligence” along with two other Russian men who had already left the United States.
  10. 1 2 Stewart, Will (28 January 2015). "EXCLUSIVE: License to BILL - Russian 'undercover agent' accused of being part of Kremlin spy ring in New York is a former Moscow tax inspector". The Daily Mail.
  11. 1 2 Hays, Tom (29 July 2015). "Judge refuses to toss out US spying charges against banker". The Associated Press.
  12. ↑ Ferrigno, Lorenzo (11 March 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."
  13. ↑ Babad, Michael (27 January 2015). "Why would an alleged Russian spy want to know about ETFs?". The Globe and Mail. According to the allegations filed in court, all three were operatives of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, SVR, in particular its Directorate ER, whose specialty is economic matters. “The directives from Moscow Center to Evgeny Buryakov, a/k/a ‘Zhenya,’ Igor Sporyshev, and Victory Podobnyy, the defendants, as well as to other covert SVR agents acting within the United States, included requests to gather intelligence on, among other subjects, potential United States sanctions against the Russian Federation and the United States’ efforts to develop alternative energy resources,” the complaint alleges.
  14. ↑ Baumann, Nick (26 January 2016). "The FBI Just Arrested an Alleged Russian Spy Who Wanted to Know How to Trigger an Economic Meltdown". Mother Jones. On the phone, Sporyshev asked Buryakov what questions an unnamed Russian news organization should ask New York Stock Exchange executives that would be useful to Russian intelligence, according to the complaint. Buryakov allegedly suggested the news organization inquire about high-frequency and automated trading systems.
  15. ↑ Berman, Russell (26 January 2015). "Cold War Echoes in a New Russian Spy Ring". The Atlantic. Another time, Sporyshev wanted Buryakov's help planting questions with a Russian state news agency to get information about the New York Stock Exchange, including about high-frequency trading and "mechanisms of use for destabilization of the markets."
  16. ↑ Raymond, Nate (9 March 2016). "FBI penetrated New York-based Russian spy ring using hidden recorders". Reuters.
  17. ↑ Ax, Joseph (12 May 2015). "Accused Russian spy's U.S. legal fees paid by Moscow-owned bank". Reuters. Buryakov’s lawyer, Scott Hershman of the firm White & Case, told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman that his firm had signed a retainer agreement with Buryakov’s employer, state-owned Vnesheconombank.
  18. ↑ Katersky, Aaron; Date, Jack; Ferran, Lee. "Russian Spy Pleads Guilty, Walked Into FBI 'Trap'". ABC News. Retrieved 12 March 2016. A Russian spy, who posed as a banker in New York City, today pleaded guilty to espionage-related charges after court documents revealed Russia's top intelligence service waltzed into an FBI "trap".
  19. ↑ Weiser, Benjamin (11 March 2016). "Bank Employee Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Work as Secret Russian Agent". The New York Times. Just weeks before he was to go on trial in federal court, a Russian bank employee in New York pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of conspiring to act as an unregistered Russian agent in the United States.


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