MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. Eugene Spector, a US national sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Moscow court, gathered data that would help the Pentagon create a system for genetic screening of Russians, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported.
"Acting in the interests of the Pentagon and an affiliated commercial organization, the American collected and transferred numerous biotechnological and biomedical data, including sensitive information, to a foreign counterpart for a data feed in a system for rapid genetic screening of the Russian population to be developed in the United States," the FSB said, adding that Spector was convicted of espionage.
"The data obtained by the FSB through counterintelligence activities, searches, and probes were confirmed in a court hearing. The criminal activity of Eugene Spector has been fully proven," the FSB emphasized.
Based on that evidence, the Moscow City Court held a closed-door trial, sentencing Spector to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony and imposing a fine of over 14 million rubles ($136,600).
Earlier reports indicated that Spector was born and raised in the Leningrad Region before moving to the United States, where he was granted US citizenship. He was the chairman of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company specializing in cancer-treatment drugs.
In his first case, Spector, currently serving a 3.5-year prison term, was charged with helping bribe a former assistant to ex-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who received two trips, to Thailand and the Dominican Republic, each worth 2 million rubles ($19,500).