The news that Paul Whelan holds citizenship in four countries brings international pressure on Russia from several fronts. "Really, an exchange should be equal," he said. [7], He was an IT manager for the Kelly Services staffing company from 2001[8] to 2003, and then 2008 to 2010. "[35], On January 5, 2019, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that on the day after Whelan's arrest the United States had detained a Russian citizen, Dmitry Makarenko, in the Northern Marianas and transported him to Florida to face charges of unauthorized export of defense equipment. At Kelly Services, his title was senior manager of global security and investigations. They have also said the CIA would not recruit someone with Mr. Whelans bad conduct discharge. "The intelligence community would never use someone with that past, especially in a situation like this when you'd be sent into a very, very difficult environment," argues Ryan Fayhee, the family's lawyer in the US who cites intelligence contacts from his days prosecuting cases of counter-espionage. Paul Nicholas Whelan (born March 5, 1970) is a Canadian-born former United States Marine with U.S., British, Irish, and Canadian citizenship. Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. The 48-year-old former Marine and global security director for a U.S. company was arrested a week ago in Moscow. Time for Russia to release Paul Whelan - Washington Times Kristen Jordan Shamus - Detroit Free Press. The Pentagon, So, at a court hearing late last year, I raised my voice over a wall of bailiffs to ask him once again what had happened. "His experience of having already been to the Kremlin and having already walked around Red Square and navigating the metro, his friend felt Paul could assist a bunch of Americans who hadn't otherwise ever been to Moscow," David Whelan said. The man Whelan accuses of framing him was one of his oldest friends in Russia. From Novi, Michigan, he was born in Canada to British parents and moved to the US as a child. "As my cousins in England would say, this is complete bollocks.". This article will convey all the necessary information on Paul Whelan. Mr Whelan, 52, was given a 16-year jail sentence in 2020 after being arrested in Moscow on suspicion of spying in 2018. So without much ado, read thePaul Whelan Dishonorable Dischargeblog to know the complete story. His mornings begin at 6 a.m. and his routine is monotonous, but writing letters and reading books in English helped him get through it, he said. His service ended after he was convicted at a Biden called those espionage allegations totally illegitimate charges., Biden said his administration has not forgotten about Paul Whelan, and promised to keep negotiating in good faith for his release., Meanwhile, Whelan said Thursday that he is greatly disappointed that the government has not done more to secure his release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. [7] He took military leave from Kelly Services to serve with the Marine Corps Reserve from 2003 to 2008, including service in Iraq. He thought it was cool to hang-out with FSB people and low level military personnel (probably anyone above a private rank would give him no attention). "No-one's hiding that, everyone talks about it, all the officials," he told the press. ", the American wrote back. [7] The Chelsea Police, however, said he worked in lesser roles and as a part-time officer from 1990 to 1996, while the Washtenaw County sheriff reported no record of his employment. The surge in East-West tensions has made espionage both more complex - and more urgent - in recent years. It does not have any facilities in Russia. Whelan, a 48-year-old former Marine and security director for a U.S. company, was arrested a week ago in Moscow, accused of spying. The three judges swept off the podium and out of court. he wrote. There was also speculation over other possible motives for the arrest - including a suggestion Mr Whelan was detained so he could be exchanged with Maria Butina, a Russian gun rights activist, who was jailed in the US in December 2018. "[They'd say] things like, 'There's no hope for you, tell us the truth. He took a military leave of absence from Kelly Services, he testified, to serve in Iraq. Paul Whelan's early life and the possibility of congressional intervention, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Alexei Tarasov, Viktor Bout's attorney, told Russian television that Mr Whelan wasn't included in the swap because the exchange was on a "one for one" basis. He later worked as a global security executive for the auto WebOn June 15, 2020, Whelan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison for espionage by a court in Moscow. Whelan, who at the time of his arrest was the head of global security for a US-based car parts firm, began to denounce the charge of espionage as "ridiculous", and declare that he was being tried by a "kangaroo court". It was a flat, abrupt end to a spy trial that had taken just a handful of closed hearings. Specifically, he received a "Bad Conduct Discharge" handed down by a special court martial. American Paul Whelan was discharged from the Marines He left the company in 2016 and started working for BorgWarner, an Auburn Hills-based auto supplier, in 2017, according to company spokeswoman Kathy Graham. [15] He took courses at Northern Michigan University from fall 1988 to fall 1990 without earning a degree. And, to make matters worse, he wrongfully used another person's Social Security number to engage in unlawful activity. '," a former colleague, Skotti Fietsam, told the BBC. He is currently facing. It was a choice of bringing home one American, Brittney Griner, or bringing home none, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity on a call with reporters. Please comment. "[12], When arrested in Russia, Whelan was director of global security and investigations for BorgWarner, an international automotive parts manufacturer based in Michigan. ", Zherebenko has worked on the high-profile international case of a Russian accused of. [14][b] As of March 2019, he shared a cell with another prisoner who spoke no English. New details have emerged about the military history Novi businessman Paul Whelan, who has been accused of spying in Russia. In one email exchange during his early 2018 trip to Moscow, a relative joked: "Don't get into any trouble we can't get you out of, haha!". (Reuters) - Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony on espionage charges, did not figure in a prisoner exchange on Quite dilapidated. The former Marine said he was living in quite crowded spaces and estimated that his building housed 50 to 60 people. [16][17][18] Whelan's twin brother David said Whelan arrived in Moscow on December 22 to attend the wedding of a former fellow Marine at the Hotel Metropol Moscow and to assist the groom's family members on their first visit to Russia, a country he had visited many times. For his crimes, he was ultimately discharged from the Marine Corps for bad conduct, a ruling he unsuccessfully attempted to appeal. Odds are he did something wrong. [27], Former CIA officers have stated that the CIA would not recruit an officer with Whelan's military record, nor leave an officer exposed without a diplomatic passport. Britains Press Association said Whelans U.K. citizenship was reported by the U.S. embassy to British officials on Thursday. Read about our approach to external linking. [45], Whelan's brother David Whelan approved of the decision to "make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to happen. The release of Brittney Griner, the American basketball star imprisoned in Russia who was exchanged Thursday for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, shed light on the case of another American prisoner, Paul Whelan. That year he told a Marines news site that he'd taken advantage of a programme that funded a two-week break abroad for those on long deployments. He worked as an administrative clerk and chief before being discharged in 2008 for bad conduct. He was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct in 2008 after being convicted of charges related to larceny, according to military and court records. The independent Latvian-based publication Meduza reported that the wedding attendees all banded close together for the duration of the holiday, and were taken aback by Whelan's decision to spend the day alone. When the judge returned to court, to extend his stay in prison once again, Whelan's frustration erupted. His family decided not to change them, reasoning that a bill of over $150,000 (121,000) was "an awful lot of resources for what would have been zero impact". On Dec. 8, 2022, WNBA star Brittney Griner was released to American custody after spending nearly 10 months as a prisoner in the Russian penal system on marijuana-related charges. "[14] A few weeks later, Zherebenkov said Whelan had been unaware of the contents of the USB drive and believed it contained material solely of personal value such as "photographs, videos, anything at all, about his previous holiday in Russia. Whelan joked back then on his website, which has since been archived. It's clear that the US government has no concessions that the Russian government will take for Paul Whelan. Mr Whelan was "responsible for overseeing security" at facilities in Michigan and around the world, a company statement said. Why was Whelan rejected for the Prisoners swap? In a statement following Ms Griner's release, David Whelan said that the Biden administration warned the family ahead of time that Paul would not be released as part of the exchange. So when Whelan's plight became public, there was speculation that he could be the human collateral. As his family step-up their appeals to bring him home, officials in Moscow are already hinting at a possible prisoner swap adding to suspicions that the man from Michigan is a pawn in a political game that has yet to play out. There were signs of problems even earlier. The former US Marine - who also has British, Irish and Canadian citizenship - has always insisted on his innocence, and in court this week he described himself the victim of "greasy, slimy Russian politics". "I don't know anything what [sic] might be interesting to foreign spy. A Moscow hairdresser, meanwhile, was contacted by Whelan on Instagram around five years back. All the signs so far suggest Moscow is opening with a high bid - Viktor Bout, a weapons dealer serving 25 years in America and Konstantin Yaroshenko, sentenced to 20 years for drugs smuggling. The Marine Corps released Whelans service record, showing that he was convicted in a 2008 court-martial on charges related to larceny. "I'm trying to focus on immediate goals, so I don't get distracted by how awful it is that he could spend 16 years behind bars," David Whelan told me, imagining how his twin would have felt, convicted of spying and heading back to his prison cell. Whelan then spent over a decade working as a corporate security expert. This undated photo provided by the Whelan family shows Paul Whelan in Iceland. Whelan's arrest comes just two weeks after alleged Russian spy Maria Butina pleaded guilty in the US to conspiracy charges. Since late 2018, he has been held on espionage charges, which he denies. Whelan's family are already pushing for action after a sentence that his brother, David, called "a gut punch'. [8], He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1994. His attorney, Vladimir Zherebenkov, has said his client unwittingly received a flash drive containing state secrets while visiting Russia for a wedding in 2018. The Interfax news agency says he has denied the allegation. Why is Paul Whelan imprisoned? [37] [38] His lawyers said they believed Russia would Russia freed Brittney Griner in a high-profile prisoner exchange with the U.S. '''Dmitry' says hello! Skotti Fietsam, his former colleague, found Whelan serious and supportive, but also laughed at how he would insist on using heavily armed guards when he visited the factory she managed in Mexico, even posting them outside restaurants while they ate. At a news conference on Thursday, President Biden said that the US government will "never give up" on securing Mr Whelan's release. officer Whelan stated that he was in Russia to attend a friends wedding, and he knew that the flash drive contained some holiday photos he had received. The Whelan family eventually found a name and even a photograph. "We are not looking for an exchange, we are looking for justice for Paul," US Ambassador John Sullivan insisted, emerging from the verdict at Moscow City Court to a wall of microphones and cameras. "I think Paul will be taking it very hard. Who is Paul Whelan, the ex-US Marine jailed in Russia? A scroll through their profiles, soon after his arrest, revealed almost all to be men - most considerably younger than him. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Officers typically bide their time, he explains, calling it "calf-rearing", before a target is culled. Russia would later insinuate, via anonymous sources quoted in the press, that the CIA had selected candidates for Paul Whelan to cultivate for intelligence. [28][29] On December 20, 2018, when discussing Butina's arrest, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia "will not arrest innocent people simply to exchange them". Whelan, 48, was arrested Fridayin Moscow, and was charged withespionage. Paul Whelan Officials have now confirmed that Whelan holds U.S., British and Irish citizenship. He started as an IT project manager for a company called Kelly Services in the early 2000s, but deployed with the marines within a couple of years on the first of two tours to Iraq, in 2004 and then 2006. On Whelan's old website, alongside Harry Potter books and War and Peace, his recommended reading includes a long list of Cold War thrillers by Tom Clancy. ((This Dec. 8 story has been corrected to fix paragraph 8 to make clear Whelan was given a bad-conduct discharge from the Marine Corps, not a dishonourable discharge).) [3][14] He again joined the marines in 2004 and then in 2006. [43] The Russian side insisted on the additional release of Vadim Krasikov, an assassin serving a life sentence for murder in Germany. Paul Whelan was detained by the Federal Security Service of Russia on 28th December 2018 at the Metropol Hotel room in Moscow. We dont know exactly why [he hasnt been added], maybe because he is too valuable for the swap, and theyve decided to hold him for longer, she added. During his imprisonment, Whelan has been working in a clothing factory, which he called a sweatshop in a 2021 interview with CNN. "The porridge, some days it goes direct to the toilet," Frode Berg wrote to me from northern Norway of life in the FSB prison. That first day, though - in a cage, with a dozen cameras trained on him - he looked tense and spoke little. That was New Year's Eve 2018 and the start of a case that would embroil four western governments and pile pressure on relations with Russia that had already sunk to a post-Cold War low. The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. Paul Whelan Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. How long has Paul Whelan been held in a Russian penal colony? He served 14 years in the Paul Whelan's lawyers have now confirmed that he was being watched for some time and his communications monitored. Paul Whelan would be brought for multiple custody hearings and appeals over the months and we squeezed in almost every time. President Biden said Thursday that those efforts have failed so far because Russia has decided to treat Whelans case differently given the nature of the espionage charges levied against him. "Had this been an independent court, they would have reached only one decision - not guilty," his lawyer, Vladimir Zherebyonkov said after the verdict. Relations between Moscow and London are at a low point in the wake of Britains allegations that Russian military intelligence agents were behind the nerve-agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury in March. Earlier this year, American Trevor Reed, a former Marine who was detained in 2019, was exchanged for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to 20 years in a U.S. prison. Concern for Whelan flared up again in November after he was not able to contact his family for more than a week and Russian authorities claimed he had been sent to a hospital. Whelan was discharged for bad conduct in 2008 after being convicted of several charges related to larceny, according to the records," the newspaper wrote. Disclaimer The article shares only particular details about Paul Whelan and his conduct.