US Army major and wife 'wanted to leak military data to Russia'

Couple accused of trying to give Moscow sensitive medical details of American personnel

Soldiers at Fort Bragg Army Base, which is at the centre of the case. AFP

A former US Army major and his anaesthesiologist wife have been charged with plotting to leak highly sensitive healthcare data about military patients to Russia.

Jamie Lee Henry and Dr Anna Gabrielian were charged in federal court in Maryland with conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information about patients at the army base, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

Mr Henry's lawyer David Little declined to comment on the charges, but said his client was released on home detention.

The indictment alleges that after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February, the pair attempted to provide the Russian government with data to help it “gain insights into the medical conditions of individuals associated with the US government and military”.

The couple met someone they believed was a Russian official, but was in fact an FBI undercover agent, the indictment said.

At a hotel in Baltimore on August 17, Dr 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 said.

In the meeting, she allegedly volunteered to bring her husband into the scheme, saying Mr Henry had information about military training the US had provided to Ukraine. As well as being a major, he was a doctor at Fort Bragg Army Base in North Carolina.

At another meeting later that day, Mr Henry is said to have told the undercover agent he too was committed to Russia and said 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 US is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia,” prosecutors say he told the agent.

'Not something you walk away from'

The agent in turn urged the couple to read a book called “Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy,” telling them 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.”

Mr Henry had some reservations about providing health care data, saying it would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, according to the indictment, but Dr Gabrielian had no hesitations.

In a subsequent meeting on August 24, she allegedly told the agent her husband was a “coward” to be concerned about violating the HIPAA, but she broke the law “all the time” and would ensure 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, the indictment says.