Edmond Pope

{{Short description|Retired American spy}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Edmond D. Pope | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | other_names = | occupation = Businessman, retired naval captain | education = | spouse = Cheri | children = | website = {{official|http://www.edmondpope.com/}} }}

'''Edmond D. Pope''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Эдмонд Поуп}}) is a retired American intelligence officer-turned-businessman, convicted by a Russian court in 2000 on charges of spying for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for buying up and smuggling classified military equipment out of the country as scrap metal.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Falunin|first1=Valeri|authorlink1=Valeri Falunin|title=Secret Operations of the Military Counterintelligence (''Тайные операции военной контрразведки'')|url=http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/smi/interview/single.htm%21_print%3Dtrue%26id%3D10342721%40fsbSmi.html|accessdate=August 18, 2017|work=Moskovskij Komsomolets|date=December 19, 2001|language=ru|quote=Interview with Lieutenant-General Head of the FSB Department for the Moscow Military District|archive-date=August 26, 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130826114359/http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/smi/interview/single.htm!_print%3Dtrue&id%3D10342721@fsbSmi.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=NG12042008>{{cite news |url=https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2008/04/13/38432-shpiono-money |title=Шпионо-money: Сначала дела «ученых-вредителей» были полезны для карьерного роста. Затем сотрудники ФСБ научились извлекать из них чистую прибыль |trans-title=Spy-money: At first, the work of the "saboteur scientists" was useful for career growth. Then the FSB officers learned how to make a net profit from them |language=ru |work=«Новая газета» (novayagazeta.ru) |date=12 April 2008 |access-date=15 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524065852/https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2008/04/13/38432-shpiono-money |archive-date=24 May 2022}}</ref>{{efn|Allegedly, FSB General General Nikolai Oleshko ({{langx|ru|Николая Олешко}}) headed the first department of the Investigative Directorate of the FSB, which handled the Edmond Pope case, with Yuri Plotnikov ({{langx|ru|Юрий Плотников}}) as an investigator and his father Oleg Plotnikov ({{langx|ru|Олег Плотников}}) as a prosecutor in court.<ref name=NG12042008/><ref name=OpenMedia>{{cite news |url=https://openmedia.io/investigation/semya-generala-fsb-kuriruyushhego-delo-safronova-okazalas-sovladelcem-biblio-globusa/ |title=Семья генерала ФСБ, курирующего дело Сафронова, оказалась совладельцем «Библио-Глобуса» |trans-title=The family of the FSB general in charge of the Safronov case turned out to be a co-owner of Biblio-Globus |language=ru |work=Открытых медиа (openmedia.io) |date=22 September 2020 |access-date=15 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250912193709/https://openmedia.io/investigation/semya-generala-fsb-kuriruyushhego-delo-safronova-okazalas-sovladelcem-biblio-globusa/ |archive-date=12 September 2025}}</ref><ref name=OpenMediaChart>{{cite news |url=https://openmedia.io/files/2020/09/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0_%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%B0_%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BC%D1%8C%D0%B8_%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0_%D0%A4%D0%A1%D0%91_%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%83%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0.png |title=Структура бизнеса семьи генерала ФСБ Василия Петухова |trans-title=Business structure of the family of FSB General Vasily Petukhov |language=ru |work=Открытых медиа (openmedia.io) |date=22 September 2020 |access-date=15 September 2025 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250912203808/https://openmedia.io/files/2020/09/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0_%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%B0_%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BC%D1%8C%D0%B8_%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0_%D0%A4%D0%A1%D0%91_%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%83%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0.png |archive-date=12 September 2025}}</ref>}} 253 days into his custody, Pope was pardoned by the newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin as US government claimed that Pope had a rare form of bone cancer.<ref name="kozl">{{cite news |first=Владимир |last=Козловский |title=Дело Поупа: США негодуют |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/news/newsid_1058000/1058863.stm |work=Русская служба Би-би-си |date=December 7, 2000 |access-date=9 March 2012}}</ref> Pope has always maintained his innocence and continues to assert that the Russian authorities used him as a scapegoat for their broken system.<ref name="CNN">{{cite news|title=Edmond Pope: Arrested and imprisoned for espionage in Russia|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/11/05/pope/index.html|accessdate=August 18, 2017|publisher=CNN|date=November 5, 2001}}</ref>

In an interview with CNN, Pope spoke of a plot by unspecified people in the US, as well as the KGB and the Russian mafia, as a part of which Pope was being slowly poisoned in the Lefortovo Prison. Pope asserted that this was done with the hopes that he would eventually have to be transferred to a hospital, abducted on his way, and smuggled out of the country. Pope claims that Congressman John E. Peterson and Pope's wife "learned of this plot and put a stop to it before it was carried out," for which he was grateful.<ref name="CNN"/>

==Book== A book recounting his experience was published in 2001.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pope|first1=Edmond D.|last2=Shachtman|first2=Tom|title=Torpedoed: An American Businessman's True Story of Secrets, Betrayal, Imprisonment in Russia, and the Battle to Set Him Free|date=November 14, 2001|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|isbn=0-316-34873-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/torpedoedamerica00pope}}</ref>

== See also == * VA-111 Shkval

==Notes== {{Notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pope, Edmond}} Category:Living people Category:People of the Defense Intelligence Agency Category:American spies Category:Espionage in Russia Category:Year of birth missing (living people)