Lives of Anna Chapman, other Russian spy suspects ranged from mundane to glam — Anna Chapman — one of 10 people the FBI arrested as Russian spies over the weekend — was dogged by a common IT headache, according to the criminal complaint filed against her: She spent a great deal of time trying to get her laptop to work.
According to the FBI, she belonged to a spy network the Russians dubbed "illegals," a group tasked with posing as Americans in order to get close to American policymakers. But she had persistent trouble getting the computer issued by her Russian handlers to wirelessly transmit her weekly intelligence reports, the Justice Department complaint alleges, because the connection didn't work.
Still, she liked her American computer well enough. In January, she raved on her Facebook page: "My new Mac has been the buy of the year... Love it!" Apparently, Russian spies are Mac evangelists. Who knew?
According to the FBI, she belonged to a spy network the Russians dubbed "illegals," a group tasked with posing as Americans in order to get close to American policymakers. But she had persistent trouble getting the computer issued by her Russian handlers to wirelessly transmit her weekly intelligence reports, the Justice Department complaint alleges, because the connection didn't work.
Still, she liked her American computer well enough. In January, she raved on her Facebook page: "My new Mac has been the buy of the year... Love it!" Apparently, Russian spies are Mac evangelists. Who knew?
Emerging details on the alleged Russian spy ring show that some suspects were living mundane suburban family lives. But others, including Chapman, were operating as glamorous single partygoers. The New York Post calls Chapman a "flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan."
The 28-year-old redhead reportedly owned an online real estate business worth $2 million (unnamed in news reports so far) and lived in a "fancy Financial District apartment," the Post said.
Her Facebook page is stocked with glamour shots worthy of a model, and New York party photographer Patrick McMullan has snapped her attending high-society events like the 2010 FDNY Foundation Dinner and an Armory Show Kickoff Party hosted by Whitewall Magazine.
The other suspects apparently lived more ordinary lives. A 40-something couple known as Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley (also known as Ann Foley) had two teen sons who, like many teens, sometimes disrupted their neighborhood in Cambridge, Mass., with loud parties, according to the Boston Herald.
Foley owned her own real estate website and worked as an agent for Redfin Realty, while Heathfield was a consultant doing leadership training for a firm called Global Partners Inc.
On Monday, one of Heathfield's partners there, Carolyn Quintin, told Yahoo! News that she was "shocked" at news of Heathfield's arrest. And on Tuesday morning, another partner, Jay Gronlund, said he was "very impressed with Don's professional skills — smart, personable." Gronlund said Heathfield hadn't done much work for the firm in recent years, even though he's listed as a partner.
Heathfield is also the founder of a company called Future Map, which claims on its website to sell strategic planning software to governments and corporations.
The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University confirmed to Yahoo! News that Heathfield earned a midcareer master's degree in public administration from the school in 2000, but declined to say what courses he took or which professors he studied under. According to the blog Wicked Local in Cambridge, Heathfield made a campaign donation to Massachusetts state Rep. Marty Walz, one of his Kennedy School classmates, in 2004.
Heathfield's colleagues say they believed him to be a Canadian national who'd earned American citizenship. Foley describes herself in an online profile as "a native of Montreal" who "lived and was educated in Switzerland, Canada and France."
Their neighbors describe them as a typical Cambridge couple: "I’m surprised, very surprised,” one told the Boston Herald. "She was a friendly neighbor. She was gorgeous. She was nice. They were European but I didn’t know what kind."
Another arrested couple, Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro, lived on a quiet suburban street in Yonkers, N.Y., and also had children. Pelaez — a columnist of El Diario/La Prensa, one of the largest-circulation Spanish-language newspapers in the U.S. — has written critically of the United States, calling the American prison industry a form of slavery. Lazaro is a retired professor of political science at the New School for Social Research; both are Peruvian. The couple was arrested Sunday while returning home from a party with their 17-year-old son, according to El Diario (via Google Translate).
Richard and Cynthia Murphy lived in Montclair, N.J. One neighbor joked to the New York TimesAccording to Politico, Cynthia Murphyclaimed in a profile on LinkedIn (a service that many of the suspects apparently joined) to have attended Columbia University. Cynthia Murphy is described in the complaint as having made contact with an unnamed high-profile financier and political donor. that their gardening skills didn't quite fit in with the charge of espionage: "They couldn’t have been spies — look what she did with the hydrangeas." was a vice president at a Manhattan accounting firm called Morea Financial Services. She
An unmarried suspect who lived in Washington, D.C., Mikhail Semenko, an unmarried alleged operative, was described by neighbors as living a lifestyle closer to Chapman's. One woman described Semenko to the New York Times as "a stylish man in his late 20s who drove a Mercedes S-500."
Little has been reported about another couple, Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills, who recently moved to Arlington, Va., from Seattle.
An 11th and last suspect was arrested Tuesday in Cyprus: Christopher Metsos, who authorities alleged was the spy handler. He was picked up while trying to board a flight for Hungary.( yahoo.com )
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