Anna Chapman was the Russian spy who captivated America, but possibly there’s a new spy from the Baltic States ready to take over. Anna Fermanova, a 24-year-old native of Latvia, has captivated Facebook enthusiasts and presumably stolen military-grade equipment. The New York Daily News writes that Fermanova presumably sent a Raptor 4X Night Vision Weapons sight to Moscow illegally, supposedly for her husband to use while hunting. The blonde import was arrested July 15 at her parents’ home near Dallas after coming back from her most recent Moscow journey.
'Looks a lot worse than it really is,’ as outlined by Anna Fermanova’s representative
”She’s a nice Jewish girl who lives with her sweet Latvian mother and father. There’s no terrorism link. There’s no espionage,” claims Scott Palmer, Anna Fermanova’s lawyer. But a confidential informant is noted 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 the scopes were merely for her husband’s hunting ventures. The agents asked her if she knew it was illegal to take such military grade hardware out of the country, and her response was that she had signed some form of paperwork but was unsure exactly what the paperwork stated. Clearly, it wasn’t an exporter’s license.
Fermanova admits to removing serial numbers from the scopes
Fermanova reportedly used a black marker to cover up the serial numbers on the night vision scopes. She simply said she did that so the numbers would be “less noticeable,” but agents became suspicious. The scopes were confiscated and Anna Fermanova was allowed to fly to Moscow, but her passport was seized and she was arrested upon her return to the United States. Fermanova was subjected to the charge of “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. At this moment, Anna Fermanova is under house arrest in her parents’ home, which was made possible when $ 50,000 bail was posted.
In trouble for check fraud
In 2003, Anna Fermanova was arrested for forging a $ 76 check. The former cosmetology student and English teacher was fined and sentenced to 3 years of probation. 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.
Further reading
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
