Another American has been slapped with a lengthy prison sentence in Russia. On Tuesday a Moscow court ruled that Gene Spector, a dual national, is guilty of espionage for which he was given a 15-year prison sentence.
The case stemmed from or at least was added onto a prior 2020 guilty plea involving Spector mediating bribes for a previous aide to former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, according to TASS.
"Independent Russian outlet Media Zona, who had a journalist inside the courtroom, reported that Spector was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony on espionage charges," CNN reports.
"His previous charge for bribery was added to this term, meaning he was handed down a 15-year sentence, it reported, adding that Spector was also fined 14,116,805 rubles (around $140,500)," the report continues.
Spector is believed to have already been in jail for years amid the pending court proceedings. Little in the way of specific information on the alleged crimes have been made public, with the court citing national security secrecy.
TASS has described that he served as chairman of the board of directors of Medpolymerprom Group, which produces cancer drugs.
According to some of the details of Spector's background via The Washington Post:
The trial was held behind closed doors “due to the secrecy of the case materials,” according to the country’s Interfax news agency. “Only the introductory and resolutive parts of the sentence were announced by the court.”
Spector was born in what was then the Soviet Union and later moved to the United States, where he obtained citizenship. He moved back to Russia as an adult and became an executive at a medical equipment company.
The Associated Press has recently listed the growing list of Americans behind bars in Russia, some of who have been set free in prisoner swaps with Washington.
In August of this year Russia and Washington conducted a historic prisoner swap which led to the freedom of former US Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Eight detained Russians had been sent from the US back to Russia as a result of the swap. Earlier in the Ukraine war the Biden administration came under political fire for agreeing to release international arms trafficker Viktor Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was arrested and convicted in a Moscow court on a minor marijuana charge.