A former CUNY professor accused of spying for Russia told federal authorities right after his arrest that he had a fake name and that “he would not violate his loyalty to the” Russian secret “service even for his son,” federal prosecutors said today.
The ex-prof, who lived in Yonkers under the fake name “Juan Lazaro,” also told investigators on Sunday that his wife, El Diario columnist Vicky Pelaez, had delivered letters to their spymasters on his behalf, and that their Yonkers home “had been paid for by the ‘Service,'” according to a filing by federal prosecutors.
Pelaez is being held without bond along with “Lazaro” — who is refusing to provide his real name — on charges that they acted as agents for Russia. The filing indicated that federal authorities were monitoring their conversations by “microphones” in the Yonkers home “for years.”
That filing also revealed that two other people accused of participating in the same spy ring — Richard and Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, NJ — had a safe-deposit box containing $80,000 in cash.
Judge Ronald Ellis said Pelaez, a journalist born in Peru but who has U.S. citizenship, could be released on house arrest with a monitoring device if someone paid the $250,000 bond, with $10,000 needed in cash.
Ellis denied bail to Richard and Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, N.J. A bail hearing was postponed for Juan Lazaro, Pelaez’ husband.
In New York, a prosecutor said the spies have helpers in the US waiting to aid their flight if they are released on bail.
The filings released today said that “Moscow Center” — the spymasters for the ring — in 2008 sent the Murphys a messages that said there were “‘ three major ways for [Richard Murphy] to start [his] career for Service’s purposes,’ one of which was, among other things to get involved in ‘dem./rep. campaing [sic] HQ in your area.'”
And in a 2009 message from Moscow Center to the couple, the spies’ bosses wrote: “The only goal and task of our Service and all of us is security of our country. All our activities are subjected to this goal. Only for reaching this goal were you dispatched to US, settled down there, gained legal status and were expected to start striking up usefull [sic] acquaintances, broadening circle of your well placed connections, gaining information and eventually recruiting sources.”
Meanwhile today, a lawyer for a Cambridge, Mass., couple accused of spying for the same ring said that only thing his clients infiltrated are “neighborhoods, cocktail parties and the PTA.”
Donald Heathfield and his wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley appeared in Boston federal court for a bail hearing, but a judge granted a delay until July 16 to give their new lawyers time to prepare.
Heathfield’s lawyer, Peter Krupp, said afterwards that the evidence revealed so far against his client is “extremely thin.”
As they entered the court in handcuffs and leg shackles, the couple smiled at their sons, a teenager and a college student. The boys waved to their parents.
Foley and Heathfield are among 11 people accused of trying to infiltrate US policymaking circles. Foley worked as a real estate agent while Heathfield was a business consultant.
Meanwhile, red-faced authorities in Cyprus searched airports and marinas today in a massive manhunt for a suspected Russian spy-ring paymaster who vanished after being allowed to walk free on bail.
Police also examined surveillance video from crossing points on the war-divided island, fearing that the suspect may have slipped into the breakaway north of the island, a diplomatic no-mans-land recognized only by Turkey.
Justice Minister Loucas Louca admitted that a judge’s decision to release Christopher Robert Metsos “may have been mistaken,” but said authorities were examining leads on his possible whereabouts.
“We have some information and we hope that we will arrest him soon,” Louca told reporters, without elaborating.
Metsos, 54, is wanted in the United States on charges that he supplied money to the spy ring that operated under deep cover in America’s suburbs.
Metsos’ disappearance is a major embarrassment to Cyprus. The eastern Mediterranean island favored by tourists used to be a hotbed of Cold War intrigue, as spies converged at the crossroads of three continents — Europe, Africa and Asia.
Authorities have promised to do everything possible to find the suspect who claimed he was a tourist traveling on a Canadian passport.
A man in Canada says the passport stole the identity of his dead brother.
Metsos was arrested Tuesday in Cyprus on an Interpol warrant while waiting to board a flight for Budapest, Hungary, but a Cypriot judge freed him on $33,000 bail.
Metsos failed to appear Wednesday for a required meeting with police, igniting the manhunt.
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said there were “no indications yet” that Metsos had left the internationally recognized south of the island — and told The Associated Press that “the nagging question of why he was released on bail is best posed to the court, not the police.”
The American ambassador to Cyprus, Frank Urbancic, held an hour-long meeting with Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias on Thursday, but a government spokesman insisted the U.S. had made no formal complaint.
“The investigation is in the hands of the Cypriot government,” a spokesman for the US embassy said when asked if the United States had contacted authorities in northern Cyprus about the fugitive.
The US Justice Department expressed disappointment Thursday.
“As we had feared, having been given unnecessarily the chance to flee,” Christopher Metsos “did so,” said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the department’s national security division.
Boyd said “we’re disappointed that Christopher Metsos was released on bail” after his arrest.
Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by supporters of union with Greece.
Turkey is bound by Interpol warrants, but northern Cyprus is not and also has no extradition treaties with other countries. Its only air links are to Turkey, but it has ferries that run to Turkey, Lebanon and Syria.
Turkey’s Mediterranean coast is some 960 miles long, making it difficult to control, but Turkish authorities frequently intercept illegal migrants trying to sneak in. About 25 flights take off daily from northern Cyprus to more than a half-dozen Turkish cities.
With AP