Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich were freed as part of a historic prisoner swap on Aug. 1, 2024.
Former US Marine Paul Whelan became the subject of international scrutiny when he was arrested by Russian authorities on suspicion of espionage in December 2018.
The Michigan security executive spent over five years imprisoned in Russia – and continued to languish behind bars when other prisoners, including WNBA star Britney Griner, were released.
He was finally returned to the US on Aug. 1, 2024, when he and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich were released as part of a history prisoner exchange.
Paul Nicholas Whelan was born on March 5, 1970, in Ottawa, Ontario, his twin brother, David, told the Detroit Free Press.
Whelan’s parents were British citizens of Irish descent, according to the BBC.
In addition to his twin brother, he had another brother and a sister.
Whelan eventually moved to Michigan, and was entitled to Canadian, US, Irish and British citizenship – the latter two thanks to his parents’ background.
Whelan started a career in law enforcement sometime in the early 1990s, the reported.
In a 2013 deposition related to a case Whelan was not a party in, he claimed to have been a sheriff’s deputy in Washtenaw County and a police officer for the city of Chelsea, the outlet said.
The Washtenaw County sheriff’s officer, however, had no record of his employment, and the Chelsea police only showed him working part-time as an officer, dispatcher, crossing guard and parking officer from 1990 through 1996.
Julie LeBourdais, a former colleague of Whelan’s at the Keego Harbor police department, remembered him as “straight as an arrow.”
Whelan worked in Keego Harbor as a patrol officer from about 1998 to 2000, she explained.
Whelan seemed knowledgeable about global affairs, LeBourdais recalled.
Whelan enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1994, the reported.
He took military leave from his job as an IT manager at Kelly Services staffing firm to serve full-time from 2003 through 2008, including tours in Iraq.
One person who deployed with Whelan remembered him learning Russian and writing the Cyrillic alphabet on a board, as well as taking holiday time to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg, the said.
Whelan had achieved the rank of staff sergeant when, in January 2008, he was convicted by a court-martial on multiple charges including attempted larceny, three instances of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another person’s Social Security number and 10 instances of making checks without sufficient funds.
Whelan was sentenced to 60 days’ restriction and had his pay docked, military documents showed.
He received a bad-conduct discharge and was let go from the Marine Corps on Dec. 2, 2008, with the rank of private.
The Marines declined to release more information about the charges in the wake of Whelan’s arrest.
