All news

Vnesheconombak to pay legal defence of its employee charged with spying in US

NEW YORK, May 12. /TASS/. Russia’s state-owned Vensheconombak will pay for the legal defence of its employee, Yevgeny Buryakov, who is accused in the United States of spying for Russia, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Buryakov’s lawyer, Scott Hershman of the firm White & Case, said his firm had signed a retainer agreement with Vnesheconombank.

Federal prosecutors raised the issue of a possible conflict of interests by allowing a third party to finance Buryakov’s defence. A court spokesperson told TASS a next hearing was planned for Monday, May 18.

Buryakov, a deputy representative of Russia’s Vneshekonombank in New York, was detained by FBI agents in Bronx on January 26, 2015. Later on that day he faced a court in Manhattan. The southern district attorney’s office formally charged him with spying. He may face up to 15 years in prison.

Earlier, Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s envoy for human rights, democracy and the supremacy of law, said Moscow kept an eye on the situation around Buryakov’s arrest. "Charges are still ungrounded, but, naturally, we will continue to take efforts to protect his legal rights and interests, including his due-process rights," Dolgov stressed. "We will continue to exert diplomatic and legal efforts to have him released the soonest possible. We support efforts of his lawyers.".