Three Bulgarians associated with Jan Marsalek Virecard, found guilty of espionage in Russia

During the trial, which the police called one of the most significant cases of espionage in Britain for decades.

Katrin Ivanova, 33 years, 30, Vania Gaberova, 30, and 39th Tikhomir Ivanchev, were sentenced one by one conspiracy to spy on Friday.

Ivanov was also found guilty of accusing false identity documents with the wrong intention after more than 30 hours of jury discussion.

The prosecutors said the trio was part of the spy ring, which operated between 2020 and 2023. Under the guidance of the former Chief Operational Director, Wirecard Jan Marsalek, who acts under the name of Rupert Titz.

It is estimated that Marsalek was recruited by Russian exploration in 2014 and fled to Moscow after the fraudulent activity of the payments group was exhibited in 2020.

Telegram reports, shown in court, suggested that Marsalek – who did not face the allegations, gave Bulgarian assignments on behalf of the Russian and internal special services, GRU and FSB.

Marsalek issued orders from his Russian chiefs to the head of the group, 46 -year -old Orlin Rusev, who managed his activities from his home in the Big Yarmut, the court said. Roussev and Bizer Jambaz, 43, pleaded guilty of plinged on spy Before the trial began. Ivan Stoyanov, 33, pleaded guilty to espionage before the trial.

In her final argument last month, Prosecutor Ellison Morgan of the Criminal Code stated a juror that the ring fills the “gap” in “invalid intelligence” that Russia faces after surgery Poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury In 2018, Russian spies from all over Europe pushed.

On the eve of the verdict, Dominic Murphy, the head of the SO15 police team, described the police operation to uncover the spy ring as one of the largest espionage investigations, which he saw for more than two decades of fighting terrorism.

“It was spinning on almost industrial scale on behalf of the Russian state,” he told reporters, calling the group “a serious threat”.

Murphy added that when he was first informed about the activity of the group, they seemed “what you expect, read in a spy novel.”

During the three -month trial, the prosecutor’s office stated to the jurors that the accused had monitored between 2021 and 2022 against a number of goals, including journalists, dissidents and the US military base in Germany.

The court heard that Kryysh Grozova, a Bulgarian investigation journalist in Belingatkat, watched and watched at the end of 2021 different members of the group in his home, on flights and at a conference of journalism.

Marsalek and Rusyv discussed the theft of their laptop, cracking the internet, stealing or killing it and penetrating Belingkat, Telegram reports.

Supervision of the Roman Sabbaths, Insiders Editor, Russian Mass Media, run in parallel. The ring used the information obtained from Amadeus, the software used by the airline to track its movements across Europe and follow it during the Berlin flight.

Marsalek and Rusev also discussed the kidnapping and transporting it to Moscow.

The prosecutor’s office stated that the prosecutors had two operations for the “benefit” between Russia and Kazakhstan.

In November 2021, Berger Riskaliev, a former Kazakh politician who was critical of the country’s connection, was entered at Kensington’s residential address and a luxury residential complex of One Hyde Park.

The group also planned a fake flag outside the Kazakh Embassy in Pall Mall.

At the end of 2022, Jambazov and Ivanova went to the barracks, the US military base in Stuttgart, where Marsalek believed that Ukrainian troops were trained to use the surface to the air, the court heard.

Jambaz and Ivanov recorded images and videos on the perimeter of the connection and security settings. Rosev and Marsalek were discussed using a “hunting IMSI”, a device that can track mobile phones and extract sensitive information, such as passwords.

Finally, at the end of 2021 and early 2022, the group began before the Budva, Adriatic resort city in Montenegro, to spy on Russian dissident Kirill Kachur, who was appointed a foreign agent in 2023.

Renting the villas adjacent to the real estate belonging to a woman who is believed to be a girl of a Kachura, the group used drones and other spyware to record her images and find it.

During the prosecution, which took place between the middle of 2020 and the beginning of 2023, the group had access to 221 different mobile phones, 258 hard drives, 33 audio recordings and 55 videos and almost 500 SIM cards, Murphy reports.

The participants of the ring had 11 drones, 16 radio and 75 passports and identification documents in 55 different names. They also scored everyday items altered to hide observation devices, including a rock, a handle, bottle for non -alcoholic beverages, hours and two “spying”.

Each of the accused claimed that Russes and Jambazov had been misleading. Ivanovo, a partner of the last 10 years, said she thought she contributed to the Belingat -style site to expose corrupt journalists.

Gaberova, who also had a simultaneous 18-month relationship with Jambazov-Ivanchov, a former Greece guy, said they believed that they were helping Interpol, for which Jambazov said he was working.

Frank Ferguson, Head of the Special Crime and Crown Counter -Terrorism Department said on Friday that, focusing on people in the UK, escaping with persecution, and journalists who oppose the Russian regime, the group “undermined the report that the UK is a safe country for these people.”

“This prolonged activity also undermined the safety and security of the UK; and no doubt that each of the accused knew exactly for whom they were spying on,” he added.