WASHINGTON, USA - A former U.S. Army major and his anesthesiologist wife have been criminally charged for allegedly plotting to leak highly sensitive healthcare data about military patients to Russia, the Justice Department revealed on Thursday.
Jamie
Lee Henry, the former major who was also a doctor at Fort Bragg in North
Carolina, and his wife, Dr. Anna Gabrielian, were charged in an unsealed
indictment in a federal court in Maryland with conspiracy and the wrongful
disclosure of individually identifiable health information about patients at
the Army base.
Reuters
could not immediately determine who is representing them in the case.
The
indictment alleges that the plot started after Russian President Vladimir Putin
invaded Ukraine.
Prosecutors
said the pair wanted to try to help the Russian government by providing them
with data to help the Putin regime "gain insights into the medical
conditions of individuals associated with the U.S. government and
military."
The two
met with someone whom they believed was a Russian official, but in fact was
actually an FBI undercover agent, the indictment says.
At a
hotel in Baltimore on Aug. 17, Gabrielian told the undercover agent "she
was motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could
to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail," the indictment
says.
In the
meeting, she volunteered to bring her husband into the scheme, saying he had
information about prior military training the United States provided to
Ukraine, among other things.
At
another meeting later that day, Henry told the undercover agent he too was
committed to Russia, and claimed he had even contemplated volunteering to join
the Russian army.
"The
way I am viewing what is going on in Ukraine now, is that the United States is
using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia," he
allegedly told the agent.
The
agent in turn urged them to read a book called "Inside the Aquarium: The Making
of a Top Soviet Spy," telling the pair it would help them understand what
they were about to do.
"It's
the mentality of sacrificing everything ... and loyalty in you from day
one," the agent said. "That's not something you walked away
from."
Apparently
Henry had some reservations about providing healthcare data, saying it would
violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the
indictment says, but his wife had no hesitations.
In a
subsequent Aug. 24 meeting, she told the undercover agent her husband was a
"coward" to be concerned about violating HIPAA, but she violated the
law "all the time" and she would see to it that they could provide
Russia with access to medical records from Fort Bragg patients.
By the
end of the month, she had handed over information on current and former
military officials and their spouses, it says.
***Reporting
by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Jonathan Oatis
