The man’s alleged co-conspirators Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podohbnyy no longer live in the United States and remain at large, reads the report.
In his original indictment, federal prosecutors said that Buryakov worked for Russia's foreign intelligence agency, known as the Sluzhba vneshney razvedki (SVR), in the Manhattan office of the Russian bank Vnesheconombank.
Buryakov's superseding indictment, which does not mention SVR, carried two counts prohibiting conspiracies to defraud the United States and being an agent of a foreign government.
Read alsoEx-aide to Putin died of blunt force trauma – medical examiner saysOn Friday, Buryakov pleaded guilty to one of those counts in a plea deal only including the fraud count. He will be sentenced May 25.
In a carefully worded statement, Buryakov said: "I knowingly agreed with Igor Sporyshev, who I knew to be an official of the Russian Federation, namely an official with the New York Office of the Trade Mission of the Russian Federation, that I would take certain actions in the United States at Mr. Sporyshev's direction, without my having provided prior notification as an agent of the Russian Federation, as required, to the Attorney General."
Read alsoLondon court says Litvinenko 'probably murdered on personal orders of Putin' – The GuardianManhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara cut through the legalese. "An unregistered intelligence agent, under cover of being a legitimate banker, gathers intelligence on the streets of New York City, trading coded messages with Russian spies who send the clandestinely collected information back to Moscow," Bharara wrote in a statement. "This sounds like a plotline for a Cold War-era movie, but in reality, Evgeny Buryakov pled guilty today to a federal crime for his role in just such a scheme."
