The Adamov Affair

Yevgeny Adamov, former head of the the Russian atomic energy agency, whose policies provoked a huge quantity of grievance filings by Russian ecologists, was arrested in 2005 in Bern, because of a warrant issued by the United States. American law enforcement bodies accused Adamov (along with U.S. citizen Mark Kaushansky) of misappropriation of $9 billion (which had been allocated to Russia for programs to increase nuclear security), of money laundering and tax evasion.

American intelligence officials alleged that Adamov transferred money received from the U.S. to his private company accounts in the U.S., and from there he transferred it to Russia and other countries.

On June 26, 2005, Switzerland received an official request for Adamov’s extradition to the U.S., where the former minister was threatened with 60 years in prison and a huge fine.