Two posts from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
First up, February 20:
Nomma Zarubina heading U.S. prison for spying for Russian intelligence after a few tumultuous months in which her bail was revoked for harassing an investigator on her case.
A Russian woman charged with lying about her intelligence ties agreed to a plea deal in a New York federal courtroom Thursday, capping a tumultuous few months that saw her jailed for drunk texting an FBI agent.
Nomma Zarubina, 35, was arrested in November 2024 on charges that she lied to the FBI about her meeting with agents of the FSB, Russia’s principal intelligence agency. Prosecutors in April 2025 added charges alleging she engaged in interstate transport of women for prostitution.
She pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI and to one count of naturalization fraud for lying on her naturalization application about involvement in prostitution.
“Zarubina’s intentional concealment of her misconduct and her lies about her affiliation with Russian intelligence were an affront to law enforcement’s national security efforts,” James Barnacle Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said in a statement.
Denied bail, she faces up to five years in prison on each count, and is scheduled to receive her sentence June 11. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors dropped the prostitution-related charges, a Southern District of New York spokesperson told OCCRP.
The deal came after U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain on January 30 granted the American government’s request to keep much of the case secret on grounds of national security under the Classified Information Procedures Act.
Zarubina’s indictment alleged that she was recruited by the FSB in her native city of Tomsk to develop contacts at American think tanks in a bid to induce more pro-Russia views. She was given the code name Alyssa, the indictment said.
Zarubina’s social media accounts showed her across the U.S. at international relations conferences, and her LinkedIn page listed her as also working for a UN-affiliated non-profit called Sail of Hope.
Zarubina came to the attention of the FBI when agents were investigating her employer, Elena Branson, who ran the Russian Center in New York.
Branson fled shortly before a federal indictment in March 2022 alleging she was an unregistered foreign agent for Russia who spread propaganda and facilitated Russian government objectives. Branson’s case remains open because she has not returned to face trial.
As Zarubina awaited trial, she began texting with an investigating FBI agent, alternately sending sexually suggestive messages and threatening texts. When her texting persisted despite judge warnings and an order to get counseling for alcohol abuse, she was ordered into detention ahead of her trial, which was scheduled for June this year.
Some of her texts also indicated she saw similarities between her case and another Russian woman sent to influence prominent Americans, Maria Butina.
Screenshots of Zarubina texts entered as evidence by prosecutors showed her complaining to the FBI agent that her case was getting less attention than Butina’s....
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And a different woman, different think tank story, February 11:
Jeffrey Epstein Arranged Employment for Romantic Partner at Top U.S. Think Tank
Emails show Epstein helped a girlfriend obtain roles at the International Peace Institute, a New York-based think tank, and may even have subsidized her salary at one point.
Jeffrey Epstein appears to have pulled strings to secure employment at a prominent New York City think tank for a Russian woman he had an intimate relationship with, newly released documents show.
Emails show Epstein making inquiries about the woman’s career with people connected to the International Peace Institute (IPI), including its former president, Norwegian ex-diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen. They also suggest that he subsidized her salary at one point.
The IPI is a nonprofit that produces policy research and convenes events focused on international cooperation, particularly within the United Nations system.
Rød-Larsen resigned from the think tank in 2020 over other dealings with Epstein, which included accepting a personal loan from him, as well as allowing him to make multiple donations to IPI.
“The notion that IPI would be in any way engaged with such an odious character is repugnant to the institution’s core values,” the IPI board said in a statement at the time, emphasizing that it had been unaware of Epstein’s donations and would engage an auditor to identify them and donate an equivalent sum to charity.
“Although many institutions have decided to keep some or all of these donations, the IPI Board takes the strict view that every dollar should be re-donated,” the statement said.
It is unclear whether the board was aware that Epstein was involved in discussions about the woman’s work at the organization, and appears to have subsidized at least some of her earnings there. IPI did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer representing Rød-Larsen, John Christian Elden, said that he had never been involved in employment matters at IPI — which he led from 2005 to 2020 — and would not have been involved in the woman’s hiring.
The woman started working for IPI as an intern in 2016. In a series of emails in early 2018, she repeatedly asked Epstein to talk to Rød-Larsen about the possibility of securing a job.
“[L]et me know when y=u talk to Terje,” she asked in one. “So I am in the loop of what’s going on and how I should approach my conversation with people who does all the process with …employment.” Two weeks later, the woman followed up: “Wanted to check if you talked to Terje … as human resources department asked me to come up=to their floor to sign the contract today 😟.”
Emails show she did get a full-time job at the think tank, and IPI’s 2018 annual report lists her as an external relations assistant. (OCCRP has decided not to name women associated with Epstein in the absence of clear evidence of wrongdoing or illegality on their part.)
Her career also came up in text messages between Epstein and former Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák, a friend of Rød-Larsen’s and a regular speaker at IPI events. (Lajčák stepped down from his position as an adviser to Slovakia’s president after the release of a huge tranche of emails on January 30 by the U.S. Justice Department revealed that he had exchanged frequent messages with Epstein about young women. Lajčák did not respond to a request for comment.)
“[She] is a woman that works for Terje [Rød-Larsen] at iPi,” Epstein wrote to Lajčák in March 2018. She is educated ( the new school )and works on water issues . Is there a way to get her involved in the water project. I will subsidize if needed.”
The Slovak minister quickly agreed: “I will arrange.”
Epstein forwarded this message to the woman, who replied: “Many many thanks! I will do and kiss whatever you want me to.”
The following month, she wrote to Epstein: “[M]y first piece on water published! :)”. The same day, an article on water diplomacy with her byline was posted on IPI’s Global Observatory blog.
Cash and Connections
Emails and messages between Epstein and the woman in the files make it clear that they had a longstanding personal relationship that involved frequent visits to his house, during which she would give him massages.She routinely asked for money for rent, bills, food, hair and beauty treatments, and clothes. The emails also show that Epstein paid for some of her schooling, gave her a credit card to use, and sent $10,000 to her father in Siberia. He even helped her choose a new suit to wear at IPI....
....MUCH MORE
I may have to change my opinion of think tanks and non-profits and NGOs and that whole world.
