Ugg boot smuggler’ denies being a spy

Anna Fermanova, a 24-year-old US citizen who was born in Latvia, is under house arrest at her parents’ home in Plano, a wealthy suburb of Dallas, Texas, on $50,000 bail until her New York hearing. She faces up to 10 years in jail. louis vuitton wallets

Scott Palmer, Fermanova’s attorney, said that comparisons between his client and 28-year-old Chapman, who was expelled from the US this month, were ill-founded.

“It’s just because she’s an attractive woman with a Russian-sounding last name,” Mr Palmer said.

“There’s been no allegation that she has anything to do with that whole thing.  It’s just bad timing.” Cheap True Religion

Mr Palmer said his client spends most of her time in Russia, where her husband lives and works as an English teacher.

“She was basically doing a favour for her husband’s friend, who asked her to buy these things for him because they’re very expensive in Russia,” he said.

Ms Fermanova had not yet entered a plea to the charges, but told the New York Post that the allegations against her were “over-dramatised”.

“I’m freaking out right now,” she said.

She is accused of trying to export three night-vision rifle scopes to Russia without advance approval from the State Department, which considers them weapons.

The $7000 Raptor 4X and two Night Optics sights, each worth $4000, were hidden inside Ugg boots that were packed in Fermanova’s luggage. Federal agents swooped after she checked in for a flight from New York’s JFK Airport to Russia on March 1.

According to the charges against her, David Mondanaro, a special agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was tipped off in February that Ms Fermanova wanted to buy the items.

Fermanova admitted she covered identification marks on the munitions with marker pen to make the items easier to smuggle out of the US, Mr Mondanaro claimed. ugg boots sale

Facebook pictures of Ms Fermanova that show the blonde partying and posing for the camera circulated since news of her arrest, echoing the snaps of Chapman, who posted provocative pictures of herself on the social networking site.