Tag:

Espionage

Montgomery MD
News
Silver Spring Man With 'Top Secret' Security Clearance Accused Of Espionage In DC: DOJ Silver Spring Man With 'Top Secret' Security Clearance Accused Of Espionage In DC: DOJ
Silver Spring Man With 'Top Secret' Security Clearance Accused Of Espionage In DC: DOJ A government contractor living in Maryland has been accused of espionage by federal officials in Washington, DC, authorities announced. Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, a naturalized US citizen from Ethiopia who lives in Silver Spring is facing series charges for allegedly conspiring with a foreign government, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday. Lemma worked as an IT administrator for the Department of State and as a Management Analyst for the Department of Justice, which led to him being granted a "TOP SECRET" security clearance and access to classified systems. Prosecutors sa…

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by Zak Failla
White Plains
News
White Plains HS Grad Returns To US After Years-Long Imprisonment In Iran White Plains HS Grad Returns To US After Years-Long Imprisonment In Iran
White Plains HS Grad Returns To US After Years-Long Imprisonment In Iran A man who graduated from a high school in Westchester has been returned to American soil after being detained in Iran for almost eight years. Siamak Namazi, who once lived in Westchester, was returned home to the US along with four other American citizens on Monday, Sept. 18, President Joe Biden announced.  Namazi is a graduate of White Plains High School, according to a report by NBC News.  He had been wrongfully detained in Iran since October 2015, when he was accused of espionage. His father, Baquer Namazi, was also arrested in Iran in 2016 and detained until his release in 2022.  Nam…

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by Ben Crnic
Fairfax
Police & Fire
Vienna FBI Agent Convicted Of Spying For Russia, Robert Hanssen, Found Dead In Fed Pen Vienna FBI Agent Convicted Of Spying For Russia, Robert Hanssen, Found Dead In Fed Pen
Vienna FBI Agent Convicted Of Spying For Russia, Robert Hanssen, Found Dead In Fed Pen Notorious FBI agent-turned-spy, Robert Hanssen, was found dead in his cell at a maximum security prison in Colorado, various news outlets are reporting citing federal officials. The 79-year-old former Vienna, VA resident was apparently found unresponsive just before 7 a.m. on Monday, June 5, the Washington Post reports. Purported attempts to save him were unsuccessful. Hanssen's case is considered among the most egregious espionage cases in US history. In February 2001, federal investigators learned Hanssen was set to make a dead drop at Foxstone Park in Fairfax County, a place where he'd…

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by Cecilia Levine
Mercer
News
Schumer, McConnell Call For Release Of WSJ Reporter, NJ Native Charged With Espionage Schumer, McConnell Call For Release Of WSJ Reporter, NJ Native Charged With Espionage
Schumer, McConnell Call For Release Of WSJ Reporter, NJ Native Charged With Espionage Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) can agree on one thing: they want reporter Evan Gershkovich, a Mercer County native, to be released after he was charged with espionage in Russia while reporting for the Wall Street Journal. The duo released a rare joint statement on Friday, April 7, calling for his release. Gershkovich was charged with espionage "in the interests of his country," according to Russian state media. "We strongly condemn the wrongful detention of U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and de…

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by Sam Barron
Essex NJ
News
13 Chinese Nationals Charged With Multiple Acts Of Espionage By Feds In Washington, NJ, NY 13 Chinese Nationals Charged With Multiple Acts Of Espionage By Feds In Washington, NJ, NY
13 Chinese Nationals Charged With Multiple Acts Of Espionage By Feds In Washington, NJ, NY Thirteen people, including members of China’s security and intelligence services, have been charged with trying to recruit professors and others in the United States to act as agents for their country, federal authorities in New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC announced. Tales of international intrigue include allegations that the defendants plotted to steal documents from a federal prosecutor's office to subvert a criminal investigation into a major Chinese company. Some of them are also charged in a spy-versus-spy encounter involving a $41,000 bribe in Bitcoin paid to an American…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Suffolk NY
Politics
Suozzi Asks Biden For Help In Case Of Huntington Businessman Being Held In China Suozzi Asks Biden For Help In Case Of Huntington Businessman Being Held In China
Suozzi Asks Biden For Help In Case Of Huntington Businessman Being Held In China New York Congressman Tom Suozzi is urging President Biden to take action in the case of a Long Island businessman who the United Nations says is being wrongfully detained in China. Rep. Suozzi, a Democrat whose district includes most of the North Shore of Long Island, sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday, July 20, asking him to personally intervene on behalf of Kai Li. The 60-year-old Chinese American, who lives in Huntington and emigrated to the US from Shanghai in 1989, was sentenced to 10-years in prison in 2018 on charges of espionage and spying for the FBI. Li was convicted following…

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by Michael Mashburn
Anne Arundel
News
Navy Engineer, Wife Admit Trying To Sell American Submarine Secrets For Cryptocurrency: Feds Navy Engineer, Wife Admit Trying To Sell American Submarine Secrets For Cryptocurrency: Feds
Navy Engineer, Wife Admit Trying To Sell American Submarine Secrets For Cryptocurrency: Feds The wife of a former Navy engineer from Maryland has also admitted in federal court that she helped him try to sell some of America’s best kept submarine secrets to a foreign country in exchange for cryptocurrency. Diana Toebbe, 46, of Annapolis, served as a lookout while her husband, Jonathan Toebbe, 43, serviced three “dead-drops," which were picked up by undercover FBI agents during a year-long sting operation, federal prosecutors said Friday. Diana pleaded guilty to conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data — four days after her husband admitted to the same. The Toebbes were …

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by Cecilia Levine
Adams
News
Nuclear Engineer, Wife Used PA Address To Contact Undercover FBI Agent, Authorities Say Nuclear Engineer, Wife Used PA Address To Contact Undercover FBI Agent, Authorities Say
Nuclear Engineer, Wife Used PA Address To Contact Undercover FBI Agent, Authorities Say Much like a story out of a spy thriller, a Maryland couple was arrested in West Virginia after using a Pennsylvania home address to commit espionage by selling restricted data to an undercover FBI agent. Jonathan, 42, and Diana Toebbe, 45, of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, and charged with violations of the Atomic Energy Act by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service on Saturday. “The complaint charges a plot to transmit information relating to the design of our nuclear submarines to a foreign nation,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Gar…

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by Jillian Pikora
Essex NJ
Lifestyle
The Ragnarök Vaults: Former NJ Reporter Pens Cold War Spy Novel The Ragnarök Vaults: Former NJ Reporter Pens Cold War Spy Novel
The Ragnarök Vaults: Former NJ Reporter Pens Cold War Spy Novel The Cold War loomed over Michael Perrota's childhood growing up in Nutley in the 1980s. Nearly every movie he watched, book he read and video game he played served as stark reminders of the past. Perrota developed a fascination with the war, devoting much of his time trying to understand it and how it affected the modern world. After more than a decade of research and writing, Perrota published "The Ragnarök Vaults: A Thomas Braddock Novel" -- a Cold War spy novel that hit the shelves last month. "In the end, it's a fun a spy novel," said Perrota, a dad of three from Fair Lawn. "But withi…

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by Cecilia Levine
Mount Pleasant
News
NYPD Officer Accused Of Acting As Illegal Agent For China NYPD Officer Accused Of Acting As Illegal Agent For China
Nypd Officer Accused Of Acting As Illegal Agent For China A Long Island man working for the NYPD has been arrested for allegedly acting as an agent for a foreign government and spying on New Yorkers, prosecutors said. Baimadajie Angwang, 33, who was born in the autonomous region of Tibet in China and now lives in Williston Park in Nassau County, was arrested on Monday, Sept. 21 for allegedly reporting to officials at the Chinese consulate about the activities of Tibetans in New York. In addition to his work as an NYPD officer, Angwang also serves in the U.S. Army Reserve. It is alleged that Angwang, who works in the 111th precinct in Queens, init…

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by Zak Failla
Mount Pleasant
News
Warning From Homeland Security, FBI: Russia Wants To Hack Your ISP Router Warning From Homeland Security, FBI: Russia Wants To Hack Your ISP Router
Warning From Homeland Security, FBI: Russia Wants To Hack Your ISP Router With the entire world watching what turn the international Russian conflict takes next, federal officials are warning area residents that a cyber strike could be the newest threat as hackers target routers and other network devices. The Department of Homeland Security, FBI and United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre issued a joint Technical Alert on the “worldwide cyber exploitation of network infrastructure devices (such as a) router, switch, firewall, Network-based Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) devices by Russian state-sponsored cyber actors.” Officials said that targets are p…

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by Zak Failla