A former KGB spy who worked against the West during the Cold War was defrauded out of his life savings after scammers tricked him into throwing thousands from his window
A KGB spy who caused havoc for the West is believed to have been scammed out of tens of thousands.
Gerontiy Lazovik thought he was helping Russian law enforcement get close to criminals, but he was tricked into throwing the equivalent of just over £82,000 out of a balcony in Moscow. The notorious veteran spy, now aged 92, was defrauded of the life savings he kept with his wife in their apartment.
He was called by scammers via video link who were pretending to be “the head of a government agency and his assistant” using image substitution technology. Reports said one scammer pretended to be Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, one of President Vladimir Putin’s cronies.
The scammers told him on receiving a pre-arranged signal to throw a package containing $100,000 from his balcony to a waiting conspirator standing below. The dodgy group convinced the KGB pensioner he was “participating in an operation to catch criminals” seeking to defraud him and his wife.
The victim eventually “realised that he had become a victim of fraud and contacted law enforcement”, said the prosecutor’s office. A 20-year-old courier who received part of the money from the pensioner was caught red-handed. Searches remain underway for other scammers, amid reports that many such schemes are masterminded from Ukraine, taking advantage of the gullibility of Russians.
Propaganda under Putin’s rule has led them to believe without question what ‘secret services’ officials tell them, and criminals are now exploiting this. Lazovik had been convinced to turn off the lights in his apartment, and to search for suspicious people and cars. He obeyed orders to take a torch and shine it on the street before dropping the money to the waiting man below.
In the Cold War, Lazovik had been a talented high-flying KGB agent posing as a Soviet diplomat in both Australia and Britain. It was in Canberra as KGB station chief that in 1977 Lazovik recruited a spy named Ian George Peacock with access to the West’s secrets inside the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Peacock had access to Five Eyes secrets, giving the Soviets access to damaging American and British data.
This has been described as “a goldmine for Moscow”. Former air force pilot Peacock had written a letter to the Soviet embassy which Lazovik received and acted on, in consultation with his spy chiefs in Moscow.
The Australian received cash for his secrets paid at dead-drop locations in Sydney, resulting in six years of leaks of the most sensitive material After he returned to Moscow, Lazovik was “awarded a medal for an intelligence recruitment while he was stationed in Australia”.
Peacock, who died in 2006, was only unmasked in 2023. Lazovik – who remains active in ex-KGB veterans organisations – was duped by criminals, says Russian law enforcement.
