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 Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy conspired to
gather economic intelligence on behalf of Russia, including
information about U.S. sanctions against the country, and to recruit
New York City residents as intelligence sources, prosecutors said.
Monday's charges stem from Buryakov's alleged covert work on behalf
of Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, according to a
criminal complaint.
Buryakov, 39, masked this work by posing as a banker for Russia's
Vnesheconombank, according to the complaint and the bank's website.
The investigation followed the 2010 expulsion of several Russian
spies from the United States.
Federal prosecutors said Sporyshev, 40, worked as a Russian trade
representative from November 2010 to November 2014, while Podobnyy,
27, was an attaché to Russia's mission to the United Nations from
December 2012 to September 2013.
 "The presence of a Russian banker in New York would in itself hardly
draw attention today, which is why these alleged spies may have
thought Buryakov would blend in," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in
Manhattan said in a statement.
Each defendant faces charges of conspiracy and acting as or helping
Buryakov act as an unregistered agent of a Russia.
Prosecutors said authorities had gathered physical and electronic
surveillance of dozens of meetings, including several in which
Buryakov met with an FBI agent posing as a wealthy investor hoping
to develop casinos in Russia.
They said Buryakov would seek information "far outside" what bankers
in his position would care about, including a list of Russian
entities that might face U.S. sanctions.
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Buryakov, who faces up to 15 years in prison, was arrested Monday in
New York City's Bronx borough. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn
later ordered him detained, saying he posed a flight risk since "his
cover is now blown."
Sabrina Shroff, Buryakov's court-appointed lawyer, had said the
married, father of two deserved bail, calling the charges "merely
allegations."
But prosecutor Adam Fee said Buryakov's "profession here in the U.S.
was deception," adding he previously worked in a different country
as a banker for Russia's SVR.
Sporyshev and Podobnyy have not been arrested. They no longer live
in the United States and had diplomatic immunity while they were in
the country, federal prosecutors said.
Russia's U.N. mission declined comment, while Vnesheconombank did
not respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Nate Raymond; Editing by
Bernadette Baum and Lisa Shumaker)
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