By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Alleged Financial District spy Anna Chapman, also known as Anya Kushchenko, wasn't the only one using her feminine wiles to get close to prominent Americans, the New York Post reported Friday.
Chapman's younger sister, Katya Kushchenko, once dated the son of a U.S. diplomat and an American intelligence worker, according to the paper.
The information comes from Matthew Joseff, 40, the half-brother of Katya's supposed beau, Nathan Joseff, the Post said.
Although Matthew noted that he and Nathan "have different fathers," he said both dads "were in the intelligence community," according to the Post. Their mother, Lena Joseff, was the deputy chief of the US Embassy in Zimbabwe, Matthew told the paper.
Though Nathan and Katya dated when they were teens growing up in Zimbabwe, they remain close today, Matthew claimed, according to the Post. The girls' father was, reportedly, a Russian diplomat in the African country.
Alex Chapman, Anna Chapman's ex-husband, also found himself caught up in New York's recent spy scandal this week.
The 30-year-old psychology trainee spoke to London's Daily Telegraph after being grilled by MI5 officers on Wednesday, telling the paper that he wasn't surprised to learn his former wife was suspected of espionage.
“When I saw that she had been arrested on suspicion of spying it didn’t come as much of a surprise to be honest," Chapman admitted to the Telegraph.
“Towards the end of our marriage she became very secretive, going for meetings on her own with 'Russian friends’, and I guess it might have been because she was in contact with the Russian government.”
Chapman also claimed that his former father-in-law, Vasily Kushchenko, had been a member of the KGB Russian security forces, according to the Telegraph.
“Anna told me her father had been high up in the ranks of the KGB," he told the paper. "She said he had been an agent in 'old Russia’."
Anna Chapman was denied bail on Monday after Assistant United States Attorney Michael Farbiarz noted that the defendant would only have to make it to the Russian Consulate on East 91st Street in order to evade prosecution, the New York Times reported.
