Entrepreneur Anna Chapman 28 is one of the 11 accused of being Russian
sleeper agents was Arrested in Manhattan on Sunday, June 27, 2010. Ann
is accused of working with Russia's intelligence service SVR,
According to the New York Post Chapman moved to New York in February
from Moscow after a divorce with a French supermarket heir in 2008.
In an interview before the arrest posted on YouTube, Chapman described
herself as a start-up specialist, seeking to build a recruitment agency
targeting young professionals in Moscow and New York. Her company,
called “Time Venture”, specialized in “technology, Internet, media and
leisure activities,” Chapman said in one Youtube video.
Her profile on the professional networking website LinkedIn that she
worked in London between 2003 and 2007.
Anna
Chapman's Linkedin Profile
In the YouTube video, part of a series titled "Online School for
Start-Up" Chapman says she worked for several years in London in an
investment company. She is said to have a masters degree in economics,
an expensive flat in New York's financial district and a successful
online estate agency website in Moscow.
In New York, she had launched a business "Time Venture", specialising in
"technology, Internet, media and leisure activities," she adds, claiming
to develop global strategies for new businesses.
During Monday's court hearing, Chapman's business was valued at $US2
million dollars.
Her lawyer Robert Baum argued vigorously against Chapman's
incarceration, claiming she was an innocent, who had wrongly caught in
the FBI dragnet.
"The complaint alleges the conspiracy has been going on since 1990. But
my client did not place foot in the United States until 2005," Baum
said, adding that Chapman's visa had been revoked last Saturday.
Chapman's mother, Irina Kushchenko, who lives in western Moscow, said
she was convinced her daughter was not guilty, telling the Associated
Press: ''Of course I believe that she's innocent.''
