Fergie's Tech Blog

Former Russian Spies Are Now Prominent in Silicon Valley Business

Andrew E. Kramer writes in The New York Times:

At a venture capital conference in Silicon Valley, Oleg S. Shvartsman mixed easily among the titans of private equity.

“He didn’t stand out from the crowd,” said Evgeny Zaytsev, the organizer of the conference on Nov. 9.

That is, until he acknowledged in a newspaper interview that the $3.6 billion group of equity funds he manages serves investors “close to the top of the F.S.B. and S.V.R.,” the domestic and overseas espionage agencies of the Russian government.

Russians and outsiders have long suspected that the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B. by its Russian initials, successor to the K.G.B., has had a hand in Russian business. But Mr. Shvartsman’s statement, the boldest such assertion yet, has generated debate over the appropriate corporate role for spies and ex-spies.

posted by Fergie @ 12/17/2007 07:15:00 PM