A Moscow court sentenced a Russian-born American to 15 years in prison on charges of espionage, Russian state media reported Tuesday, mentioning court documents.Gene Spector was arrested in 2020 on charges ofmediating a kickback to the assistant of previous Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in the type of vacations to Thailand and the Dominican Republic.
The assistant, Anastasia Alexeyeva, wassentencedto 12 years in prison.Spector was sentenced to four years in prison in 2021, but that sentence was later reduced by 6 months following a retrial.Authorities brought brand-new espionage charges against Spector in August 2023, although information surrounding the case were not revealed.
The trial was held behind closed doors given the nature of the charges.Spector was born in Leningrad in 1972 and was raised in the Soviet Union, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, and his Russian name is Yevgeny Mironovich.
He later ended up being a U.S.
resident but went back to Russia to live in St.
Petersburg with his better half and children.He formerly worked as CEO of Medpolimerprom, a group of companies thatmakesplastic medical devices.The United States previouslysaid it did not believe Spector was wrongfully detained.