Anna Chapman

Anna Chapman (born February 23, 1982) is a Russian business woman, who while living in New York, United States was arrested along with nine others on June 27, 2010, on suspicion of working for an Illegals Program spy ring under the Russian Federation's external intelligence agency, the SVR (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki). Chapman pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. Attorney General, and was deported back to Russia on July 8, 2010, as part of the 2010 Russia–United States Prisoner Swap.

Biography
Born Anna Kushchenko in Volgograd, according to US authorities, her father was employed in the Russian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. According to her British ex-husband, her father, Vasily Kushchenko, was also a senior KGB official, although this is unsubstantiated. She attended an elite boarding school and earned a masters degree in economics from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow.

London: 2001-2006
Chapman moved to London in 2000/1, working at NetJets, Barclays Bank and allegedly at a few other companies for brief periods.

In 2001, at an underground rave party in London's Docklands, she met Alex Chapman, then 21, the son of a British business executive. The couple married shortly thereafter in Moscow, and as a result she gained dual Russian-British citizenship, and a British passport. After Anna was arrested in New York, Alex engaged media publicist Max Clifford, and sold his story to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

By 2003–2004, Alex stated that Anna had become distant, falling in with a group of "secretive, well-connected Russian friends." During this period, he has said that she would often go out with other Russians without inviting him along because they would only be speaking Russian. He has also stated that she seemed to have more access to money during this period, and often spoke of meeting influential people. By 2005, the marriage had fallen apart and they divorced. Anna went back to Russia in 2006, but according to Alex they remained in contact.

New York: 2006-2010
After her return to Russia in 2006, her ex-husband stated that she began seeing a rich American man, and moved to New York, where she started a real-estate business. Alex has stated that Anna continuously told him the enterprise was in the red for the first couple of years, and then suddenly in 2009, she had as many as 50 employees and a successful business. Anna's LinkedIn social networking site profile identified her as CEO of PropertyFinder LLC, a website selling real estate internationally.

Alex commented that their contact was less frequent in the subsequent year, and Anna was arrested on June 27, 2010. Anna is reported to have been dating Michel Bittan, a prominent New York restaurant owner, at the time of her arrest.

Illegals Program and arrest
The nature of Chapman's work with the Illegals Program is unclear to the public. Aside from her admission, and subsequent deportation, no concrete details have been provided of any spying activities. She is one of only two of the Russians arrested who did not use an assumed name.

Arrest
Officials claimed Chapman worked with a network of others, until an undercover FBI agent attempted to draw her into a trap at a Manhattan coffee shop. The FBI agent offered Anna Chapman a fake passport at Starbucks, with the instructions to forward it to another spy. He asked "are you ready for this step?", to which Chapman unequivocally replied, "Shit. Of course." And accepted the passport. However, after making a series of phone calls to her father, Vasily Kushchenko, in Moscow, Chapman ended up heeding her father's advice and handed the passport in at a local police station, but was arrested shortly after.

Media coverage and popular reaction
After her arrest by the FBI for her involvement with the Illegals Program, Chapman gained overnight minor celebrity status while under custody. She was dubbed the "flame-haired beauty", "femme fatale", "the modern day Bond girl" and "the stunning SoHo spy", by the media. Photos of Chapman taken from her Facebook profile proliferated the web, and a dozen or more videos of her appeared on Youtube. She was described as a regular of exclusive bars and restaurants in New York City, and magazines and blogs detailed her fashion style and dress sense. Her ex-husband, Alex Chapman, engaged media publicist Max Clifford, and sold his story to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, which included semi-nude photographs and lurid tales of sexual prowess. Current US Vice-President Joe Biden, appeared on NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno". When asked by Leno, "Do we have any spies that hot?", the Vice-President replied in a mock serious tone, "Let me be clear. It was not my idea to send her back." Chapman described her time in the US with the Charles Dickens quote, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times".

It was reported on July 19 2010, that Chapman is shopping for a 250,000 USD media deal using an associate of hers and a 'secret' Swiss bank account to avoid her profits being seized by the US government. While her plea deal requires her to forgo any proceeds from such a deal, her attorney Robert Baum noted that she is not prohibited from telling her story and that it would be difficult for American authorities to enforce the terms of her plea deal now that she is in Russia. While Anna Chapman herself, angrily denies those claims, calling it "an absolute lie".

According to July 20, 2010 issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russia's mass circulation tabloid) report, Anna Chapman stopped responding to phone calls when the paper was trying to negotiate the $25.000 interview deal with her (the date was not specified).

International exchange
After being formally charged, Chapman and nine other detainees became part of a spy swap deal between the US and Russia, the first of its kind in 24 years. The 10 Russian agents returned to Russia via a chartered jet that landed at Vienna International Airport, where the swap occurred on the morning of July 8. The Russian jet returned to Moscow's Domodedovo airport, where after landing the 10 spies were kept away from local and international press.

Revocation of UK citizenship
According to a statement from her US lawyer Robert Baum and media reports, Chapman wished to move to the UK. As a result, the Home Office investigated the use of special powers by the British Home Secretary to deprive Chapman of her British citizenship, only used against six people since their introduction in 2002, in part to make it easier to deport radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al Masri. The Home Office issued legal papers revoking her citizenship on July 13, 2010. Steps are also being taken to exclude Chapman, meaning she could not travel to the UK. After her deportation to Russia, Baum reiterated that his client had wished to stay in the US; he also said that she was "particularly upset" by the revocation of her UK citizenship and exclusion from the country.