1994- Anna Fermanova moved to Greensboro, NC with her family from Riga, Latvia as Jewish religious refugees.
1998- The family then moved to Baltimore for a year and eventually settled in Dallas area. In the US she was naturalized and became a US citizen.
2003- Anna is arrested for forging a $76 check, fined and given three years of probation, according to court records.
2004- Anna graduated from Richardson High School.
2007- Anna's boyfriend is deported from the US to Moscow on a "green-card violation". The circumstances are unclear.
2009- Anna's Russian boyfriend said to be working in "currency exchange" after having a business importing used cars from America.
March 1, 2010- While travelling from New York to Moscow, Anna was stopped by US Customs and Border Patrol because her luggage contained high tech vision goggles, allowed to be exported from the United States only with preapproval of the State Department because they are considered weapons. US Customs confiscated the equipment, but Fermanova was allowed to continue her trip to Russia.
March-July, 2010- Anna hangs out in Russia with her boyfriend/fiancee and father-in-law, ather-in-law, who is the "target master" at a hunting lodge called "The Moscow Club." Alternate theories abound.
July 1, 2010- Anna arrives back in the US according to court affadavit. But other accounts offer the date of July 15 for Anna's arrival and apprehension.
July 15, 2010- Anna returns to the US and is apprehended at JFK by the FBI, who charges her with having "knowingly and intentionally" attempted to export "from the United States to Russia defense articles on the United States Munitions list". Anna denied all charges and called them "false allegations" although she admitted removing identifying markers from the scopes and blacking out serial numbers with a marker. According to the family lawyer, the goggles were intended for sale by her husband (who is a Russian citizen) to hunters.
July 28, 2010- "She's a nice Jewish girl who lives with her sweet Latvian parents," said Dallas criminal defense attorney Scott Palmer.
August 2010- Anna out of prison on a $50,000 bail but was placed on a 24-hour home arrest at her home in Plano, Texas.
October 2011- Anna pled guilty to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act in New York court. Judge Amon ordered a sentence of four months in federal prison followed by three years of probation, including four months of being subject to home arrest. She also ordered a $1,000 fine. Amon noted that the defendant was no babe in the woods - she knew what she was doing was illegal and had smuggled items twice before she was caught.
2012- Anna wins Best Russian Business of Dallas/Fort Worth Award for her creative offerings at Capelli Salon.
May 2013- Former members of Moscow Club hunting lodge file suit against President Doug Wilder for stealing $4,000 from their lease.
The $7,000 goggles are described as a Raptor 4X Night Vision Weapons Sight, considered a 3G night vision device that allows one to locate the target in low light, and are engineered to be attached to a rifle.
When did Anna and her "dearly deported" get married? How does this marriage affect Anna's travel rights and visa procurement? Why is the name of Anna's husband impossible to find in the press?
As they say in Agency-speak, either they're working the asset.... or they're still trying to find out how he worked them. I look forward to the obfuscations of future press releases from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
John Marzulli, "Latvian beauty Anna Fermanova gets four months in prison for smuggling sniper scopes to Russia", New York Daily News, 25 October 2011.
Robert Wilonsky, "Anna Fermanova's Still in Plano, But the Husband? He's in Moscow. Has Been Since '07." Dallas Observer blog, 29 July 2010.
Samuel Goldsmith, "Nice Jewish girl Anna Fermanova busted for trying to smuggle night-vision scopes to Russia", New York Daily News, 28 July 2010.
Anna Fermanova affadavit, The Smoking Gun