United States of America v. Nomma Zarubina

New York City, New York, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with making false statements to the FBI relating to her relationship with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (“FSB”), and to naturalization fraud for lying about her involvement in prostitution-related offenses.

Nomma Zarubina, age 35, was trying to cultivate relationships with American law enforcement, civil society organizations, and others, she was lying to the FBI about her ties to the Russian Federation.

“After years of lies, Nomma Zarubina finally confessed to her repeated denial to FBI special agents of her contacts and relationship with Russian intelligence services, as well as to her failure to disclose her involvement in an interstate prostitution network in an effort to secure U.S. citizenship,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. “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. The FBI continues to defend our homeland from those who seek to impede federal investigations and deceive U.S. authorities.”

As alleged in public court filings, statements at public court proceedings, and the charging documents in the case:

The FSB is Russia’s principal security agency and is the successor agency to the Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security, otherwise known as the KGB. The FSB is believed to engage in, among other things, intelligence gathering and other covert operations abroad, including in the United States. The FSB and particular FSB officers have been sanctioned in the United States by both the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Department of State.

ZARUBINA began meeting with the FBI in or around October 2020 in connection with the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Elena Branson, a Russian national who had a close relationship with ZARUBINA and who was later charged in March 2022 for acting as an unregistered foreign agent. During an April 2021 meeting with the FBI, ZARUBINA told interviewing agents, in substance and in part, that she had recently traveled to Russia but did not have any contact with Russian intelligence services. Then, in September 2023, ZARUBINA told the FBI, in substance and in part, that she had been interviewed once by the FSB on her way back to Russia from the United States, but that she had not been interviewed by the FSB or Russian intelligence services on any other occasions.

ZARUBINA’s statements to the FBI in 2021 and 2023 about her contacts with Russian intelligence services, specifically the FSB, were false. Indeed, in June and July 2024, ZARUBINA admitted to the FBI that she had previously lied to federal law enforcement officers about her relationship with the FSB, stating, in substance and in part, that: in or around December 2020, while in Russia, ZARUBINA met with an officer whom she understood was from the FSB, agreed to help the FSB with “network marketing,” and was given the FSB code name “Alyssa”; between in or about December 2020 and in or about June 2022, ZARUBINA met with the FSB officer several times and communicated with the FSB officer on numerous occasions using encrypted messaging applications; and the FSB officer instructed ZARUBINA to share contact information of journalists in the United States, to attend the 2021 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and to look into a particular individual in the United States, which ZARUBINA agreed to do.

In addition, between at least 2018 and 2024, while residing in the United States, ZARUBINA participated in a scheme to transport women between New York and New Jersey to engage in prostitution at a massage parlor business in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Notwithstanding her involvement in that conduct, in July 2022, ZARUBINA falsely stated in response to a question in her application for naturalization in the United States that she had never “procured anyone for prostitution.”

Finally, after being indicted and while on bail in the instant case, ZARUBINA sought to unlawfully influence a witness by sending numerous unsolicited and harassing messages to one of the FBI agents involved in her case. ZARUBINA’s obstructive conduct continued for several months, including after being admonished by the Court to stop contacting the agent, and resulted in the revocation of her bail.

This case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah L. Kushner, David J. Robles, and Henry L. Ross are in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant elected to plead guilty.

She faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and one count of naturalization fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.