Make room Anna Chapman, there’s a new Russian spy on the block – or to be more specific, a Baltic spy. Anna Fermanova, a 24-year-old native of Latvia, has fascinated Facebook followers and presumably stolen military-grade equipment. The New York Daily News reports how the blonde import has presumably smuggled Raptor 4X Night Vision Weapons Sights to Moscow, where she went to visit her spouse, according to court documents. Fermanova was arrested at her parents’ suburban Dallas home July 15, approximately a month after her most recent trip to Moscow to visit her husband.
'Looks a lot worse than it really is,’ according to Anna Fermanova’s representative
”She’s a nice Jewish girl who lives with her sweet Latvian father and mother. There’s no terrorism link. There’s no espionage,” claims Scott Palmer, Anna Fermanova’s lawyer. But a confidential informant is reported to have tipped off federal immigration agents as to Fermanova’s illicit activities. Federal authorities who stopped Fermanova at Kennedy Airport before she boarded her flight for Moscow found a $ 7,000 Raptor 4X Night Vision Weapons Sight and two other sights worth $ 4,000 apiece.
The Daily News writes that Fermanova explained that the scopes were merely for her husband’s hunting ventures. Authorities questioned whether she knew it was illegal to leave the country with military grade hardware without a proper exporter’s license, and Fermanova responded that she’d filled out some paperwork, but was unsure of its purpose. It didn’t happen to be an exporter’s license; that much is clear.
Serial numbers were tampered with, by Fermanova’s admission
Fermanova admitted to officials that she’d obscured the serial numbers on the scopes intentionally. Investigating agents didn’t believe Fermanova was telling the whole truth she said that she did that simply for making the serial numbers “less noticeable”. When the authorities did allow Fermanova to go to Moscow without the scopes, they later took her passport and arrested her when she returned to America. She was charged with “knowingly and intentionally attempting to export defense articles on the United States Munitions list”. As outlined by the Daily News, that offense comes with a 10-year prison sentence if Fermanova is convicted. Currently, she resides in her parents’ home when under house arrest, after $ 50,000 bail went to post.
In trouble for check fraud
Seven years ago, Anna Fermanova was placed under arrest for a $ 76 check forgery. A fine and 3 years’ probation were the result for the former beauty school student and English instructor. While Fermanova was a cosmetology student, she took numerous pictures of herself that made it to Facebook. The notice her photographs garnered was quite comparable to what Anna Chapman experienced with her own provocative photographs.
nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/07/28/2010-07-28_nice_jewish_girl_anna_fermanova_busted_for_trying_to_smuggle_nightvision_scopes_.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvia
