The beige colonial boasts four bedrooms, an updated kitchen – and the chance to own a slice of Russian spy history that inspired the new television series The Americans.
The U.S. Marshals Service is selling a Montclair, New Jersey, home whose previous owners were arrested in 2010 by the FBI and accused of being members of a Russian spy ring.
Authorities said the home’s former occupants went by the aliases Richard and Cynthia Murphy and led what appeared to be a banal suburban life.
Spies’ den: The Montclair, NJ, house where KGB agents ‘Richard Murphy’ and ‘Cynthia Murphy’ were arrested by the FBI has been put up for sale by the U.S. Marshals Service
Sleeper agents: The home’s former occupants – deep-cover KGB agents – went by the aliases Cynthia Murphy (left) and Richard Murphy (right), but their real names are Lydia and Vladimir Guryev
Stranger than fiction: The 2010 real-life spy drama inspired the new FX series The Americans, which follows two married undercover KGB agents Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, played by Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell
Lawyers for the couple said the man was a stay-at-home father to two daughters and his wife worked for a New York accounting firm and made $135,000 a year.
It was all an elaborate, illegal ruse straight out of the popular FX series The Americans, which was in fact inspired by the real-life spy saga.
Like in the show, which follows married Russian sleeper agents Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, the Murphys – whose real names are Vladimir and Lydia Guryev – were part of a group of deep-cover Russian operatives who had been living in the U.S. for years under the guise of leading seemingly normal lives.
Guryevs and eight others – including the redheaded beauty Anna Chapman – were arrested in June 2010 after a decade-long counterintelligence probe that led to the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.
Both pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country and were deported not long after their arrests.
The Guryevs lived in New Jersey for more than 15 years and had two children: Kate, 11, and Lisa, 9, who were later taken away by FBI agents.
Average home: The beige colonial four-bedroom house with $444,900 list price is located on Marquette Road in Montclair, described by one realtor as a perfectly ordinary street
Until recently, the dwelling was plastered with ‘No Trespassing’ signs and other court documents
Fixer-upper: Neighbors say Murphys’ former residence has fallen into disrepair, with overgrown bushes and brown lawn in the front yard
Prosecutors described a ring that used techniques both elaborate and seemingly out of a Cold War spy movie.
The group meshed into American life while engaging in clandestine global travel with fake passports, using invisible ink and engaging in practices so sophisticated the government would not describe them in open court.
It was all toward the goal of infiltrating U.S. policy circles and learning about U.S. diplomacy and weapons information.
Cynthia Murphy provided financial planning for venture capitalist Alan Patricof, a political fundraiser with extremely close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
When the case broke, the secretary of state’s spokesman issued a statement as an attempt to distance Mrs Clinton from the spy ring.
‘There is no reason to believe that the Secretary of State was a special target of this spy ring,’ her spokesman said.
In 2009, authorities allege the Guryevs were asked to find out information from people involved in U.S. politics and foreign policy about President Obama’s impending trip to Russia and how he would negotiate with regards to the START nuclear arms treaty, Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear program.
Authorities said they found $80,000 in crisp $100 bills in the Montclair home, which was paid for by the Russian government.
The home has an unfinished basement and a $444,900 list price with Fast Track Real Estate Co., of nearby Waldwick.
Double-life: Richard Murphy (left) shown with suspect Christopher Metsos (right) was a mostly stay-at-home dad to two pre-teen children with his wife who worked for an accounting firm that had close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton
The sale comes after a default judgment in a federal civil case that ordered the marshals to sell the property. Until recently, the dwelling was plastered with ‘No Trespassing’ signs and other court documents.
Neighbors in Montclair told NBC News that they were relieved that the house finally has been put up for sale because over the past three years, it has become an eyesore.
According to the real estate site Zillow.com, the average-looking house at 31 Marquette Road sold in September 2008 for $481,000.
The two-story residence has four bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths and was built in 1950.
‘If there is an “Ozzie and Harriet” road in Montclair, it’s Marquette,’ real estate agent Roberta Baldwin told NJ.com in 2010. ‘You couldn’t get more normal. You couldn’t find anything more quiet and demure.’
In The Americans, which takes place in the 1980s, Philip Jennings, played by Matthew Rhys, and his wife and spy partner Elizabeth, portrayed by Kerri Russell, live in a similarly ordinary house in a quiet Washington DC suburb.
Agent provocateur: One of the Moscow agents caught by the FBI in 2010 was the redhead stunner Anna Chapman, who since being sent back to Russia has turned into a TV personality
As young KGB agents, Philip and Elizabeth were sent to the US in the 1960s with instructions to lead a normal life, build a family and blend in while fulfilling their mission to serve the Motherland.
When they are not trying to steal state secrets or outsmart their FBI agent neighbor, the pair of sleuths moonlighting as travel agents are struggling to keep their marriage from falling apart.
like the Guryevs, the Jenningses have two young children, which significantly complicates matters for them.
In fact, several couples who were exposed as Russian spies in 2010 also had kids, some as young as one year old, who ended up being left behind when their parents were sent back to Russia.
According to court documents filed in the case in 2010, like in the case of the fictional characters in The Americans, the Guryevs’ main objective was to blend in.
One message from their handlers back home read: ‘You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house, etc – all these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policymaking circles and send intels [intelligence reports] to C[enter].’
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