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Alleged Russian spies had registered to vote in Cambridge

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 2, 2010 02:56 PM

By Alex Katz, Globe Correspondent and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

The Cambridge couple who allegedly lived double lives as Russian spies and ordinary Americans took another step last fall to blend into what they claimed to be their adopted homeland -- they both registered to vote for the first time.

But, according to the Cambridge Board of Elections, Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley never voted.

At the request of the Globe, the board today released copies of the voter applications the couple mailed to Cambridge City Hall last October. Under party affiliation, they both checked the box for "unenrolled.''

Foley's application can be found here. Heathfield's application can be found here.

It is not clear why the couple decided to finally register to vote. The FBI alleges they have been in the country since 1999. The FBI has also said that while both Heathfield and Foley claimed to have been born overseas, they also claimed to be naturalized American citizens.

Also today, Leon Fuerth, Al Gore's former top national security aide when Gore was vice president, told the Globe in an email that he had business ties with Heathfield.

From his Cambridge home on Trowbridge Street, Heathfield operated a company called The Future Map that was supposed to develop and sell software that would help government and business leaders anticipate societal change before it happened.

In the email, Fuerth wrote that "Heathfield introduced himself to me after a speech I gave, and described himself as having similar interests in the subject of long-range foresight as a means for making better decisions''

George Washington University

Leon Fuerth

He added, "I was (and still am) teaching the subject, and he represented that he was dealing with it as a business subject. Eventually, he proposed that we look for a way to partner on a research grant -- but the idea didn't appeal to me.''

Fuerth, who said in the email he was traveling in Asia with his family, added, "once he (Heathfield) understood that I was not interested, he stopped communicating. ''

On his college website, Fuerth writes that he had worked with Gore when Gore was in Congress and then took on the role of being Gore's national security adviser once Gore joined President Bill Clinton in the White House.

Fuerth also notes that he has extensive contacts around the world, including with Russian officials who convinced their government to participate in the International Space Station effort now underway above the Earth.

Court papers filed by the US attorney's office in Manhattan, which is prosecuting the alleged spies, said two of the suspects have confessed they are Russians, and not the married couple from Arlington, Va., they had been pretending to be.

Michael Zottoli, after his arrest on money laundering and failing to register as an agent of a foreign government, waived his Miranda rights. He told federal authorities his real name is Mikhail Kutzik and that he was a Russian citizen.

Patricia Mills told investigators she is Natalia Pereverzeva and that her parents and siblings still live in Russia, according to the court document.