The cover story of one of the alleged Russian spies arrested in the United States is beginning to unravel today.
British firms where Anna Chapman claimed to have worked denied any knowledge of her, or said that the claims on her CV were overstated.
Chapman was one of 11 people arrested after being accused by the FBI of being members of a “deep cover” spy ring.
Her extensive online presence, including more than 90 photographs posted to Facebook and an apparently glamorous story as a property millionaire, has made her the focus of much of the media coverage of the case.
A CV published under Chapman’s name on the social networking site LinkedIn, claims that she worked in Britain for four years.
Only one of her employers, the private plane hire firm NetJets Europe, confirmed that she worked in the UK, but not for as long as the CV claimed, or at such a senior level.
“Ms Chapman was employed by NetJets Europe from May to July 2004, as an executive assistant in the sales department,” a spokesman said.
Her CV claims that she worked for a year at NetJets and was “primarily involved in selling private jets to companies and individuals in Russia”.
A spokesman for the company said that he was “not aware” whether the company had been contacted by the FBI. He added that none of the current employees remembers working with Chapman. “It was six years ago, no one is talking about it,” he said.
Barclays Bank was sceptical that Chapman had worked at the bank for a year, as she claimed. “We don’t have any record of her working here,” a spokeswoman said. A source at the bank added: “We have looked at all of our HR records at a group level and haven’t found anything.”
Chapman’s CV also claimed that she worked for a hedge fund in London called Navigator. No record has yet emerged that such a fund existed, according to the specialist hedge-fund website, FINalternatives.
She is also said to have been married to a British citizen, but this has not been confirmed.
Chapman was arrested by the FBI along with nine others, including Tracey Lee Ann Foley, who allegedly held a fake British passport.
The ten accused were arrested in the US and charged with failing to register as foreign agents, a crime that is less serious than espionage, and which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. Some also face money laundering charges.
An 11th suspect, Christopher Metsos, was arrested in Cyprus, accused of passing money to the other 10 over several years. To the surprise of the Cypriot police, he was released on bail.
The FBI moved in to break up the ring because one of the suspects – apparently Chapman – was thought to have been on the point of leaving the country, bound for Moscow, according to court papers.
At a federal court hearing on Monday in Manhattan, where Chapman was jailed without bail, her attorney described the case against her as weak.
He said she had visited the United States on and off since 2005 before settling in Manhattan to start a business.
Chapman apparently took an apartment near Wall Street and began using online social networks, including LinkedIn and Facebook, to develop business contacts and to market her skills.
On her LinkedIn page, she is listed as the chief executive officer of PropertyFinder Ltd, which maintains a website featuring real estate listings in Moscow, Spain, Bulgaria and other countries.
In court, Chapman’s lawyer said the business was valued by his client at $2m (£1.3m).
In more than 90 photos posted on Facebook, Chapman is pictured in various countries, including Turkey, where she is in one of the rooms of the luxurious Hotel Les Ottomans in Istanbul.
There is also a photo of her posing with a glass of wine between two men at the Global Technology Symposium at Stanford University in March, which costs more than $1,000 to attend.
Details have been emerging of the other accused. One, Vicky Peláez, was a journalist for a Spanish-language newspaper in New York and earned about $50,000 a year, according to a court affidavit she filled out.
Another, Cynthia Murphy, reported an annual income of $135,000 as a financial planner, her affidavit says.
In Montclair, New Jersey, Murphy’s neighbours said that they detected an accent. When they asked where she was from, she said Belgium.
“We’re from a generation where everyone was afraid of the Red Menace, of 007 and hiding under desks during drills – all of that stuff. There was real fear, so it’s shocking to see something like this,” said Alan Sokolow, a neighbour of Cynthia Murphy and her husband, Richard. “I can see it happening in the mid-1950s, but now, in 2010, it comes across as more comical, with the lo-tech stuff they said they were using.”
The arrests raised suggestions that Moscow has planted other couples in the US. Federal prosecutor Michael Farbiarz said the allegations are “the tip of the iceberg” of a conspiracy by Russia’s intelligence service, the SVR.
Yesterday, the foreign ministry in Russia said the charges were “baseless”. Today, it took a more emollient tone. It said it had taken note of the White House’s comments last night that the scandal should not derail US-Russian relations.
“We hope that the incident linked to the arrest of a group of people in the US on suspicion of spying for Russia will not have a negative impact on Russian-American relations,” a Russian foreign ministry spokesman told the news agency Interfax. “We have taken note of the statement given by the White House press secretary Robert Gibbs,” the spokesman said.
