A U.S. Army doctor and his spouse, a Maryland anesthesiologist, were arrested and charged on Thursday for trying to help the Russian government.
Jamie Lee Henry, 39 and Anna Gabrielian, 36, met several times with an undercover federal agent whom they thought was someone from the Russian Embassy.
At the time of the investigation, Henry was a major in the U.S. Army who worked as a staff internist stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. According to The Washington Post, Gabrielian was an anesthesiologist at a Baltimore medical institution.
Two Maryland doctors — including a U.S. Army major — were indicted on federal charges amid accusations that they passed along confidential medical information to a person they thought was working for the Russian government, according to court records.https://t.co/6rjsiNfVMK
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 29, 2022
According to The Associated Press, Gabrielian and Henry each face conspiracy charges and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.
In the federal indictment obtained by CNN, Gabrielian allegedly initially reached out to the Russian Embassy to offer their help several months ago. In August, an undercover FBI agent posing as someone from the embassy contacted Gabrielian.
In a meeting at a hotel in Baltimore on Aug. 17, Gabrielian told the undercover agent that 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,” according to The New York Times.
According to the indictment, Henry told the same agent that his “point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want. At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through.”
Gabrielian responded to her husband’s statement to the agent, saying, “You’ll work through those ethical issues.”
In that meeting, Henry told the agent that he had looked into joining the Russian Army after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
In a meeting a few days later, Gabrielian told the agent that she thought her husband was a “coward” who was concerned about violating HIPAA, according to The Times. She admitted to the agent that she violated that law “all the time.”
In one of the August meetings, Henry provided the FBI agent with confidential medical records for at least five Fort Bragg patients, federal authorities said. According to CNN, the records belonged to an Army officer, a Department of Defense employee and the spouses of three Army veterans, two of whom are dead. Gabrielian also conspired to provide the medical information of “the spouse of a government employee and military veteran,” according to the indictment.
Each faces a total of up to 15 years in prison if convicted, although federal sentences are typically less than the maximum, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said.
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