Guilty Plea In In Night-Vision Smuggling Case

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Guilty Plea In In Night-Vision Smuggling Case

Postby Hitoru » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:27 pm

Plano woman accused of attempting to smuggle night-vision scopes to Russia pleads guilty


By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / Staff Writer

Published 14 January 2011 06:09 PM


The Plano woman accused last year of attempting to smuggle night-vision scopes to Russia pleaded guilty Friday in a New York courtroom, her attorney says.

Anna Fermanova, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act, according to her attorney, Scott Palmer.

“She decided to accept responsibility,” Palmer said. “We’re doing everything we can to put her in the best possible light.”

Fermanova faces up to 10 years in prison, Palmer said, and the sentencing guidelines call for 46 to 57 months in prison. He said he’s hoping she will get probation.

Court officials were not available late Friday to confirm the plea. A court docket had Fermanova scheduled for a pleading Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Ramon Reyes Jr.

Palmer, who declined to make his client available for an interview, said sentencing is scheduled for April 29.

The arrest

On March 1, federal agents acting on a tip searched Fermanova’s luggage at New York’s JFK International Airport. They discovered a Raptor night-vision weapons sight and two advanced rifle sights stuffed in a pair of Ugg boots. Fermanova was allowed to continue on her flight to Moscow but was arrested in July when she returned to Texas, where her parents live.

The scopes are among articles on the U.S. munitions list that require a license from the State Department before they can be exported. Fermanova did not have a license. She told agents in New York that she had tried to conceal the markings on the scopes “so they would be less noticeable,” according to court documents.

Fermanova was arrested less than a month after federal authorities in New York broke up an alleged Russian spy ring that tried to penetrate social circles of high-ranking and high-profile Americans.

Among those arrested was Anna Chapman, a 28-year-old redhead who immediately gained notoriety for her provocative photos and fashion sense.

Chapman pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was deported last summer to Russia along with nine others in what’s been described as the biggest spy swap since the Cold War. But she has continued to seek the limelight, appearing at the launch of a rocket headed to the International Space Station and becoming the public face for a bank. She recently appeared nude in Playboy magazine.

Newest ‘sexy’ spy

National media outlets initially dubbed Fermanova “America’s newest sexy Russian spy.” Facebook photos, including one of Fermanova in a bikini, circulated on the Internet. Palmer said at the time that though his client was “quite sexy,” she was not a spy.

She was born in Latvia in 1986 and immigrated with her family to the U.S. in 1994. Fermanova, who later became a U.S. citizen, moved with her family to Texas in 1998.

She graduated from Richardson High School in 2004 and attended Collin College and the Ogle School, a Dallas-area cosmetology school. She holds a license in cosmetology.

Fermanova was headed home to Moscow to be with her husband when she was arrested last summer. She spent several weeks under house arrest at her parents’ home in Plano, where local and national media camped out for a glimpse of her.

Last fall, she appeared as a celebrity gossip commentator for KDAF-TV (Channel 33).
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Re: Guilty Plea In In Night-Vision Smuggling Case

Postby vetparatrooper » Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:17 pm

She ain't necessarily the brightest smuggler....and why i wonder did they not arrest her until after she came back from Russia?? Just curious.
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Re: Guilty Plea In In Night-Vision Smuggling Case

Postby vetparatrooper » Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:23 pm

On March 1, 2010, Fermanova was travelling from New York to Moscow but was stopped by the Customs and Border Protection because her luggage contained high tech vision goggles, allowed to be exported from the United States only with preapproval of the Department of State because they are considered weapons.The equipment was confiscated, by the Customs but she was allowed to continue her trip to Russia. While returning to US on July 15, 2010, Fermanova was apprehended by FBI at the JFK airport and charged with having "knowingly and intentionally" attempted to export "from the United States to Russia defense articles on the United States Munitions list". Fermanova denied all charges and called them "false allegations" although she admitted removing identifying markers from the scopes and blacking out serial numbers with a marker. According to the family lawyer, the goggles were intended for sale by her husband (who is a Russian citizen) to hunters.


This was what i basically got from two separate articles -- one from the New York Times and one from CBS news....apparently the scopes and all were confiscated and she was only allowed to travel without them to Russia...then she was arrested when she got back....That was awfully nice of the US Customs People and the State Department to let her continue on holiday after just confiscating this stuff.
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Re: Guilty Plea In In Night-Vision Smuggling Case

Postby Caliban » Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:01 pm

the goggles were intended for sale by her husband (who is a Russian citizen) to hunters.




More likely to sell to industry to copy and then sell to hunters.
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Re: Guilty Plea In In Night-Vision Smuggling Case

Postby Hitoru » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:20 pm

Say baby......
Let me show you some night vision equipment.

Image

Image

lawyer for America's new sexy Russian outlaw, Texan beauty school grad Anna Fermanova, is mad about how "the New York press" is treating his client. Fermanova's not a spy, he says. Just an inadvertent exporter of blackmarket military technology.

As we mentioned yesterday, Fermanova is currently under house arrest in Dallas for "knowingly and intentionally" exporting contraband weapons-grade night-vision scopes to Moscow. The sizzling Slav's defense: Her Russian husband is friends with big game hunters and the scopes were for them, because hunting goods are expensive in Russia. (So she's a sexy blackmarket arms dealer, now?!) Lawyer Scott Palmer spoke to Dallas Observer blog Unfair Park:

"Unfortunately it's illegal to take [the scopes] out of the country," Palmer says. "They're on the munitions list." Her attorney acknowledges, though: With the Anna Chapman case still fresh on everyone's mind, "it's bad timing" for Fermanova.

"But it's good timing for the New York press to slander her," he says. "She's not a spy. The government's not even saying that. She's not a spy. There is no terrorism link, no espionage. It's sexier than it looks, and that's only because she's attractive."

The good news is, if this comely carrier of contraband goods is not a spy, then her silence isn't legally mandated. That means she can do interviews! Anna, if you'd like to clear your name or aim a night-vision enhanced bazooka my direction, email us. Gawker.com will happily print whatever cryptic encoded messages you give to us. [UnfairPark, image via Anna Fermanova's defunct Facebook page]
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