Former US Marine Paul Whelan, aged 50, was jailed in Russia on Monday 15 June 2020. He was given a sentence of 16 years of hard labour in a Russian prison, on the conviction of espionage (spying). He was arrested in Russia on December 28, 2018, and accused of spying. His jail sentence includes the possibility of time in a labor camp.
His lawyers said they believed Russia would now seek a prisoner swap.
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. They further claim that Whelan's arrest is connected to tensions between Russia and the United States, including the detention of confessed unregistered foreign agent Maria Butina. 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 holds a federal firearms dealer license registered with the trade name Kingsmead Arsenal.
Career
Whelan's background appears quite interesting, and there are many contradictions of opinion involved in the online information and, it seems, much that's related to him.
According to a deposition Whelan gave in 2013, he was in law enforcement from 1988 to 2000 as a police officer in Chelsea, Michigan, and a sheriff's deputy in Washtenaw. 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. A former colleague said he was a patrol officer from 1998 to 2000 in the Keego Harbor police department.
He was an IT manager for the Kelly Services staffing company from 2001 to 2003, and then 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2016 Whelan was Kelly Services' senior manager of global security and operations.
He enlisted in the Marine Reserves in 1994. He took military leave from Kelly Services to serve with the Marine Corps Reserve in Iraq from 2003 to 2008. He held the rank of staff sergeant with Marine Air Control Group 38 working as an administrative clerk and administrative chief, and he was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After a court-martial conviction in January 2008 on multiple counts "related to larceny", He was sentenced to 60 days restriction, reduction to pay grade E-4, and a bad conduct discharge. The specific charges against him included attempting to steal more than $10,000 in 2006 in Iraq and using a false Social Security number to create a false account on a government computer system to grade his own examinations.
He said in a deposition in 2013 that he holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and an MBA degree. He falsely claimed a BA from the University of Michigan in his profile on Russian social media. He took courses at Northern Michigan University from fall 1988 to fall 1990 without earning a degree.
When arrested in Russia, Whelan was director of global security and investigations for BorgWarner, an international automotive parts manufacturer based in Michigan. His work with Kelly Services and BorgWarner gave Whelan contacts with law enforcement in many countries.
