July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. said the
12th alleged member of a Russian spy ring operating in the U.S. was an
employee at the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

The man, a Russian citizen in his early 20s named
Alexey Karetnikov, worked for Microsoft as a software tester for about
nine months, a spokeswoman for Microsoft in Moscow, who declined to be
identified in line with company rules, said by e-mail today.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on
the news when contacted by Bloomberg.

Ten members of the spy ring pleaded guilty to
conspiring to serve as unregistered foreign agents on June 8 in a U.S.
federal court in Manhattan. They admitted to carrying money or coded
messages, secretly communicating with Russian officials and instructing
others on how to find information useful to Russia. Their objective was
to infiltrate U.S. policy-making circles after constructing false
American identities, prosecutors said.

Karetnikov was departed on charges of violating
U.S. immigration laws, Itar-Tass reported, citing Matt Chandler, a
spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Karetnikov
admitted to the violation and agreed to deportation to avoid court
proceedings, the state-run news service said.

Software Company

The Facebook page of a person identified as
Alexey Karetnikov shows that he is married and graduated from St.
Petersburg State Polytechnic University in 2009. He worked for a company
called “Neobit” in addition to Microsoft, according to the Facebook
page.

A St. Petersburg-based software developer called
OOO NeoBIT lists Katernikov’s university among its partners and the
Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB,
among its clients, according to the company’s website.

Strategic Forecasting Inc. said yesterday another
member of the ring tried to get the risk advisory group to install
software he said his company had developed.

Assumed Names

A man calling himself Donald Heathfield held five
meetings with an employee of Austin, Texas-based Stratfor in an effort
to get the firm to use his program, Chief Executive Officer George
Friedman said in an e-mailed report. Heathfield, who later identified
himself as Andrey Bezrukov, was one of 10 people U.S. authorities traded
for four Russians on July 9 in Vienna.

“We suspect that had this been done, our servers
would be outputting to Moscow,” Friedman said. “We did not know at the
time who he was. We have since reported the incident to the FBI.”

Bezrukov and his partner in the network were
sentenced to time served and deported after agreeing to give up their
home on Trowbridge Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and all the funds
in four bank accounts. Bezrukov’s partner, who was identified as Tracey
Foley at the time of her arrest, told the court her real name was Elena
Vavilova.

Bezrukov, Vavilova and the other members of the
spy ring are being debriefed at the Foreign Intelligence Service’s
compound in southern Moscow, Moskovsky Komsomolets, Russia’s
second-biggest newspaper by circulation, reported yesterday, citing
unidentified Russian security officials. That process may last weeks,
the Moscow-based daily said.

Some of the 10 agents may continue to work with
the security service, while others will be free to pursue new careers,
Moskovsky Komsomolets said.

--With assistance from Brad Cook in Moscow. Editors: Tasneem Brogger,
Patrick G. Henry

To contact the reporters on this story: Anastasia Ustinova in St.
Petersburg at austinova@bloomberg.net