His mornings begin at 6 a.m. and his routine is monotonous, but writing letters and reading books in English helped him get through it, he said. In addition to larceny, specifically the attempted theft of $10,410.59 of US government money, he also reportedly bounced checks to the tune of $6,000. [19] David said the family had not known Paul had a bad conduct discharge. Whelan served 14 years in the US Marine Corps Reserve until he was discharged for bad conduct in 2008. Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC. [7] The Chelsea Police, however, said he worked in lesser roles and as a part-time officer from 1990 to 1996, while the Washtenaw County sheriff reported no record of his employment. snopes.com on Twitter: " True. Paul Whelan received a "bad "It will be very difficult to mount a defence.". Russian authorities alleged he possessed a computer flash drive containing classified information. A Moscow hairdresser, meanwhile, was contacted by Whelan on Instagram around five years back. Russia has angrily denied involvement in the poisonings. President Biden said Thursday that those efforts have failed so far because Russia has decided to treat Whelans case differently given the nature of the espionage charges levied against him. The Pentagon, which released his records, said the charges related to larceny. A decade later, he would message home regularly from trips to Russia displaying similar almost child-like wonder at new discoveries. He again joined the marines in 2004 and then in 2006. The Marine Corps released Whelan's service record, showing that hewas convicted in a 2008 court-martial on charges related to larceny. "I can't imagine how someone with a law enforcement background who is also a former US Marine, and who is now working in corporate security and is also aware of the risks of travel, would have broken any law let alone the law related to espionage," he said. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. He now told me his friend had planted the device in his pocket, without him realising. On 15 June, it took the chief judge just 1 minute 20 seconds to reach the key words in his verdict. Griner's release renewed attention on another American citizen detained in Russia: Paul Whelan. "No-one's hiding that, everyone talks about it, all the officials," he told the press. The convening authority approved the sentence as adjudged.2 We have In early 2019, the drama of his now multi-national arrest was developing against a hostile political backdrop, with mutual sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and East-West tension not felt since Soviet times.