Born in Russia in 1982, Anna Chapman was living in New York City when she made headlines in June 2010. She was arrested on suspicion of working as a spy for the Russian government. Chapman plead guilty, and was deported back to Russia in July 2010, in the biggest spy swap deal since 1986. Her good looks made Chapman the focus of the media spotlight, and upon returning to Russia she posed for a men's magazine and hosted a TV show.
Background
Born Anya Kushchenko on February 23, 1982, in Volgograd, Russia. In June 2010, Anna Chapman made headlines for her role in a Russian spy ring. She and nine others were arrested on conspiracy charges in the United States. With her good looks, flirtatious nature, and sexy clothes, Chapman soon became an international sensation as a "Femme Fatale" of the spy world.
Espionage may have been a family business. Vasily Kushchenko, Chapman's father, worked as a Russian diplomat and, according to one report, may also served as a spy. Chapman, however, started out in a different field. During a holiday trip to London, she met Alex Chapman. The pair married in 2002 and spent time living in Russia and England. She and her husband divorced in 2006.
Chapman then returned to Russia for a time before moving to the United States. She soon ingratiated herself into New York City's business and nightclub circles. Chapman ran her own real estate company, PropertyFinder Ltd., in Manhattan. In the evenings, she frequented the city's hottest restaurants and clubs. These activities served as her cover as she reportedly worked on her secret mission. She and the other Russian operatives were part of a network focused on gathering sensitive information. The spies were meant to develop "ties in policymaking circles" and send reports back to Russia, according to court documents.
It is unclear, however, what secrets Chapman had been able to uncover. In June 2010, she was arrested shortly after a meeting with a FBI agent who pretended to be a Russian official. Some friends of Chapman were surprised by the news, calling the red-haired spy "sweet." Others called her a seductress.
Chapman and her fellow spies only stayed in custody for a brief period, however. On July 8, 2010, they were sent back to Russia in a spy exchange deal between the United States and Russia. Her fellow Russians welcomed Chapman home, and she even received a medal for her work from the government. She was later appointed to a position within the Young Guard of the United Russia party and has visited with the party's leader and the country's prime minister Vladimir Putin.
While most of the other spies were granted new identities and new lives, Chapman has continued to build on her international notoriety. Playing up her sexy spy image, Chapman posed in lingerie on the cover of the Russian edition of Maxim magazine that October.She also became an adviser to the head of FundserviceBank, a Moscow financial institution. While she has turned down movie roles, she has her own weekly television show called Mysteries of the World with Anna Chapman. Chapman has also been working in the country's venture capital industry, trying to raise funds for Russia's technology sector.Also Chapman took on another new role. She became the editor of Venture Business News magazine.
Career
After graduation, Chapman moved to the UK: in her words, "a trip to London planned for a couple of weeks dragged on for five years." She got a job in a company owned by Warren Buffett, NetJets Europe, dealt with the rental and sale of business jets in Russia. From 2004 to 2005, Chapman worked in London at Barclays Bank, and in 2005-2007 was the director of marketing and withdrawal of shares on the stock exchange in a hedge fund Navigator.In October 2006, Chapman became the CEO of the company founded by her PropertyFinder Ltd (in Russia it has been registered as an LLC "Property Search"). The company was engaged in the development of real estate search engine Domdot.ru: the idea of its creation Chapman received from my own experience of house hunting. Domdot.ru project started in 2008 and initially focused only on the market of Moscow, Moscow and London, has been expanded to a U.S. audience (website NYCrentals.com). As written by Vedomosti, a few million dollars to start the project before the start of the global financial crisis gave "business angels", but the start-up capital for the project, as claimed by Chapman herself, she got by selling jewelry.In parallel, from July 2007 to March 2008, Chapman worked as vice-president and head of department on work with clients of the investment company KIT Fortis Investments, responsible for coordinating Russia. After being fired from there she moved to Moscow, where he took up his own company and working in the Moscow club of young entrepreneurs who participated in the Moscow Venture Forum. In one of his interviews, Chapman offered Moscow to young entrepreneurs seek help state agencies, explaining that in Moscow "all the conditions for small business." In February 2010, Chapman moved to the U.S. to promote NYCrentals.com and create a venture capital firm TIME Venchures by investing its money in Russian startups. Also, it was published in the blog business community New York Entrepreneur Week.June 27, 2010 Chapman was arrested by FBI agents in Manhattan. She and ten other people, including Mikhail Semenko, Michael Zottoli (Michael Zottoli), Donald Heathfield, Patricia Mills (Patricia Mills) and Vicky Pelaez (Vicky Pelaez) June 28 accused in the hidden work of a foreign intelligence, mainly in favor of the Foreign Russian intelligence: in particular, they were attributed to attempt to obtain data on nuclear armament U.S. policy toward Iran, about the heads of the CIA and Congress. As reported by the press, they maintained contacts with Russian agents, in particular, according to the investigation, Chapman exchanged wirelessly communicate with an unnamed Russian official. According to the investigation, Chapman, along with his co-accused was trained in Moscow, watching it lasted from the beginning of 2010, and shortly before his arrest, she was approached U.S. intelligence officer. He introduced himself to the Russian intelligence officer and asked her to convey a false passport to another Russian agent, after which she was arrested at the appointed place. However, Chapman's lawyer said that she came to the police station, to give a false pasport.Osvobodit Chapman on bail of 250 thousand dollars U.S. court refused. The hearing of her case was scheduled for July 27, 2010. The press noted that Chapman and the other arrested persons accused of spying is not, and in the hidden work of a foreign intelligence, because they could not get any classified information.