US report: 'Hot spy' was dating Israeli

New York Daily News reports that 28-year-old redhead Anna Chapman, who was arrested along with several other alleged Russian spies, went out with 60-year-old divorced businessman Michel Bittan

Yitzhak Benhorin |Published: 07.04.10 , 07:34

WASHINGTON – Anna Chapman, the 28-year-old flamed-haired beauty arrested in the United States last week along with several other alleged Russian spies, was dating a 60-year-old Israeli divorced father named Michel Bittan, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

According to the report, the New Jersey businessman "with deep pockets and influential friends" shared Chapman's taste for the high life.

A fellow Russian party girl told the paper that "he was older, but he clearly loves surrounding himself with beautiful women, mostly Russian, and since the spring Anna was in his inner circle."

Bittan, the report said, grew up in a poor Jewish family in Casablanca, moved to France and then to Israel before making his fortune in America.

According to the Daily News, the two met more than a year ago at the Russian hangout Mari Vanna IN Manhattan, and things heated up in the past two months, when he showed up more often at her apartment.

"I didn't think it was exclusive on his part - he really loves hot women - but she enjoyed hanging with him," a friend of Bittan said. "He moves in circles, knows celebrity chefs, meets politicians."

Anna Chapman. Secret meeting with 'powerful people' (Photo: AP)

The friend added that Bittan was "a very wealthy and successful guy. He made his money in jeans, real estate, pharmaceuticals, restaurants."

The espionage affair was revealed last week by the US Department of Justice after the FBI had arrested 10 people for allegedly serving for years as secret agents of Russia's intelligence organ, the SVR, with the goal of penetrating US government policymaking circles. Another suspect was arrested in Cyprus, but disappeared after being released on bail.

Chapman drew the media's attention immediately after the affair broke out due to her beauty. Newspapers began reporting about her day-to-day-routine in America, focusing on her active social life and her Facebook friends, including well known economist Nouriel Roubini, who has been credited with predicting the global economic meltdown.

Chapman's ex-husband, Alex, told the Daily Telegraph over the weekend that he did not believe his ex-wife was working as a spy in the UK during their marriage but suspected she had been conditioned towards that end.

"When she was still living in London she fell in with a group of people who had a lot of influence," he said. "She would go to film premieres and became arrogant and obnoxious, always going on about powerful people she was meeting."