12th Russian in Spy Probe, Alexey Karetnikov, Was Microsoft Employee

(July 14) -- The 12th person detained in connection with the Russian spy ring investigation was a software tester at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, the company confirmed today in published reports.

Alexey Karetnikov, 23, worked at Microsoft as an entry-level software tester for about nine months, the company said. Microsoft did not comment on when Karetnikov began employment at the company. The news of his job at Microsoft was first reported by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Karetnikov was deported to Russia on Tuesday, following his arrest in Seattle on June 28.

"He was present in the United States in violation of immigration law and voluntarily agreed to deportation in lieu of further court proceedings," Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told KOMO-TV.

No criminal charges were filed against Karetnikov, but tenants in his apartment building in Redmond said they saw a surge in police activity at their residence in recent months.

"We were actually joking about [the spy story] at work just the other day, so I'll have to go back and tell them," a neighbor who also worked with Karetnikov at Microsoft told KOMO.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Karetnikov's Facebook page shows he married a woman in March 2009, the same year he graduated from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University.