Scientist Accused Of Selling Biotech Drugs To Spy

An Indian-born scientist went on trial this month in the USA on chargesthat he conspired to sell stolen biotechnology drugs to an undercover FBI agent posing as a KGB spy, according to a report from Reuters.

The scientist, Vemuri Bhaskar Reddy, allegedly agreed to sell a drug, erythropoietin, that he had developed while working for a small pharmaceutical company "...to a man he believed to be a Russian KGB agent," Assistant US Attorney Penny Billings told a federal jury in her opening arguments. Ms Billings said that the man Mr Reddy thought was a KGB agent was actually an agent for the FBI who specialized in counter intelligence.

The jury was told by Ms Billings that she would show videotapes of 13 meetings that the undercover agent had with Mr Reddy's alleged coconspirator, Subrahmanyam Kota, who pleaded guilty in July last year to charges that he had attempted to sell classified government defense plans and stolen biotechnology products, according to Reuters.