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Suspected Russian spy Posobilov denied release on bail in US

Eight people were arrested in this criminal case
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

NEW YORK, October 6 (Itar-Tass) —— The court in the US city Houston, Texas, denied Friday a release on bail for Alexander Posobilov, who is one of the suspects in the criminal case over the supplies of the dual-purpose microelectronics from the United States in Russia, lawyer Alexei Tarasov told Itar-Tass. Tarasov represents the interests of Anastasia Dyatlova, who is also a defendant in this criminal case.

Eight people were arrested in this criminal case. Most arrested people have the US citizenship. Four of them, including Posobilov, also have Russian passports.

Posobilov was the head of the purchase department in the Houston-based company Arc Electronics, which, according to the US Attorney’s Office, delivered illegally the highly technological equipment to Russia. Alexander Fishenko, who is the main suspect in this criminal case, is the owner of Arc Electronics.

On Friday, the court heard FBI agent Crosby Houpt, who testified that Arc Electronics had allegedly sold the dual-purpose microelectronics to Russia for several years. Houpt testified that the tapped email exchanges and telephone conversations showed that in August 2011 Posobilov defrauded the US supplier, claiming that Arc Electronics intends to buy the equipment from it for the use in the navigation system for the fishing ships, but actually the equipment was intended for the Russian Navy.

The court will hear a release on bail for Fishenko and other three employees of Arc Electronics on October 10, and a release on bail for two other employees of the same company, including Dyatlova, on October 9. The Attorney’s Office insists on keeping all arrested people in custody, assuming that they may escape from the country and destroy the clues. The court ruled that a suspect Svetalina Zagon, who is not a Russian citizen, can be released on a bail of 250,000 dollars.

All arrested people are expected to be transferred to New York to try their criminal case in the Brooklyn District Court, where the criminal case was opened against them. The JFK International Airport is situated in Brooklyn. The defendants could have used the airport for the supplies in Russia, the US legal authorities stated.

The US accusations consist in the illegal microelectronics exports from the US to Russia in the interests of Russian military and security services. For their part, the Russian officials noted that the accusations are purely criminal and are not related with intelligence activities.

The US detectives stated that Fishenko was born in Kazakhstan, graduated from the Leningrad Electro-Technical Institute. In 1994 he resettled to the US and began working at the electronic appliances shop, in 1998 he established the Arc Electronics Company. In 2003 Fishenko was naturalized in the US. The detectives found that the Arc Electronics revenues reached about 50 million dollars from 2002 up to now.