Honeytraps and high tech: Russian spy ring members jailed in the U.K.

NBC News

12-05-2025

LONDON — A Russian spy ring plotted to trade blood diamonds for weapons in Africa and supply drones to Russia's military, according to messages shown to a London court that painted their fugitive leader as a wannabe James Bond.
Jan Marsalek — who has been named as a key suspect in Germany's biggest postwar fraud case — is alleged to have led the team of six Bulgarians who were sentenced Monday at London's famous Old Bailey courthouse.
When German payment company Wirecard collapsed in 2020, owing creditors almost $4 billion, Marsalek, the company's chief operating officer, went on the run and an international manhunt was launched for the Austrian national, who remains at large.
Messages revealed in court made it clear he was in Moscow as he referred to meetings with the GRU and the FSB state security service, at their headquarters building known as the Lubyanka, and at a 'bonding exercise with the FSB guys at the shooting range.' He even posed for a selfie in Russian military fatigues.
Court documents also showed that, while he was on the run, he directed a ragtag group of amateur operatives: Orlin Roussev, 47; his second-in-command, Biser Dzhambazov, 44; and Ivan Stoyanov, a 33-year-old mixed martial arts fighter known as 'The Rock.'
Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Vanya Gaberova, 30, described by prosecutors as 'honeytrap' agents, and competitive swimmer Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, made up the rest of the ring that carried out activities that, British police said, put lives and national security at risk.
The spies conducted surveillance for the Russians targeting journalists, diplomats and dissidents in Britain, Austria, Spain and Montenegro, and they were paid handsomely for their services, prosecutors said.
Using law enforcement grade devices called 'IMSI grabbers,' prosecutors said they targeted the Patch Barracks, a U.S. base in Stuttgart, Germany, where they believed Ukrainian soldiers were being trained to operate Patriot missile air defense batteries. This would have helped Russians to target them when they returned to Ukraine to operate the missile batteries, the court heard.
However, following an investigation by Britain's MI5 spy service, they were arrested on Feb. 8, 2023, as they prepared to return to Germany with the devices hidden in a second-hand Chrysler.
NBC News has contacted Russia's Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, known as GU, for comment.
Prosecutors said the unit did not work directly for Russian intelligence and their members were motivated by financial gain. Investigators traced $225,000 but believe at least the same amount was paid in cryptocurrency, they said.
In his sentencing, Judge Justice Hilliard said the large amounts of money paid to the six Bulgarian spies demonstrated the 'value' of their covert activities to Russia.
'Some of the money would have covered their expenses, but not all,' he said. 'This enabled the defendants to live very comfortably. It must have been thought that what the defendants were doing was of value.'
However, prosecutors said that Roussev led the spy ring from a rundown guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, a seaside town on the east coast of England, where he stashed his huge collection of spy equipment, much of which he had adapted himself.
Roussev pleaded guilty to spying for Russia in November and was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison. Dzhambazov was jailed for 10 years and two months and Stoyanov for seven years and seven months.
Ivanova was found guilty in March along with Gaberova and Ivanchev. She was jailed for nine years and eight months. Gaberova and Ivanchev were sentenced to eight years each.
As the sextet awaited sentencing, court documents revealed over 80,000 messages had been recovered from Roussev and Dzhambazov on the encrypted Telegram messaging app, following their arrest on Feb. 8, 2023.
They shed light on the lifestyle of Marsalek in Moscow, revealing he partied with intelligence officers and naked girls, got cosmetic surgery to hide his identity and said he wanted to 'outperform James Bond.'
In a bid to show he was 'not an anti-Western ideologue,' Roussev's defense lawyers introduced messages with Marsalek which, they said, showed their client was 'fixing for money' like 'everything else Mr. Roussev does.'
The messages, which were not introduced by prosecutors as part of their Russian espionage allegations, showed the pair discussed a request to help evacuate U.S. and Afghan nationals from Afghanistan during the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from the country in August 2021.
'Interesting request from our (sort of) friends at the CIA,' Marsalek said. 'They urgently need aircraft to fly out contractors from Afghanistan,' he said. 'Do you know anyone who's a bit rogue and operates large-scale airplanes?'
The objective was 'to evacuate about 1,000 Afghan nationals' and '80 US citizens' to Albania, in a deal he said was agreed between the Albanian and U.S. governments.
Roussev said he would ask his father's pilot contacts in Africa and Marsalek replied: 'America needs you, pax Americana rests on your broad and manly shoulders.'
Roussev later said the flight left Kabul shortly before an ISIS-K terrorist detonated a bomb outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killing 170 people and 13 American service members.
Defending Roussev in court, King's Counsel Mark Summers said the request had come via a private company.
The CIA declined to comment.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan said the pair were not acting on a humanitarian basis or at the direct request of the U.S. government.
It remains unclear whether Roussev was successful in ensuring a flight.
Roussev and Marsalek also discussed transporting diamonds in exchange for arms, the messages showed.
In a June 2021 exchange, Marsalek asked whether African diamond sellers wanted guns in exchange or cash. 'They usually buy guns, a lot of them,' noting that he wasn't sure if rebel forces or the government would benefit from the deal. 'Allegedly only government, but who knows, this is Africa,' he said.
Three months earlier, Roussev messaged Marsalek to say he had been approached to supply 886,000 tons of wheat annually to the Cameroon government at a 'very low price' from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Describing it as a 'good deal' considering the volume, he said that weapons and Sputnik COVID vaccines would likely be part of the transaction.' Guns and sputnik = no problem,' Marsalek replied. 'Can pretty much organize anything they need except nukes,' he added, with a laughing emoji. 'Even the nukes if they pay.'
Other messages offered glimpses of Marsalek's life in exile and his efforts to stay ahead of authorities, including facial reconstruction.
In May 2021, he wrote: 'I'm trying to improve my skills on a few fronts, languages is one of them. In my new role as an international fugitive, I must outperform James Bond.'
Four months later, in September of that year, Marsalek apologized for being out of touch, saying he was 'stuck between the mafia, half of Russia's ambassadors, the GRU, a dozen naked girls and some deep-state guys whose names no one knows who forced me to drink a bottle of gin.'
Months later, he told Roussev he had 'another cosmetic surgery, trying to look differently.'