all right. this just in to cnn. 49 people, including some current and former russian diplomats have been charged in a medicaid fraud scheme. what s new today, doesn t appear that it s just a case of stealing, but also spying as well. let s get the latest from evan perez. and again, this isn t just a case of stealing from the u.s. government but spying on the government too? reporter: right. it looks like these are russian spies who were opposeding as poor people, according to sources we ve talked to. they apparently were defrauding the government, the medicaid program of $1.5 million over the past nine years. and now these are 49 russian diplomats and their wives. some of them still in the country. they have diplomatic immunity so it s not clear whether they can be arrested, probably they can t unless the russian government allows it.
now, this is part of a back and forth between the united states and russia over spying, if you remember in 2010, there was a group called the illegals who were accused of posing as entrepreneurs, business people and being sleeper agents for the russian spy service. and earlier this year the russians decided to expose a cia spy that they said was trying to meet people wearing wigs. in this case, we re told that this these allegations about spying, they just didn t have enough to bring a case against these 49 or against the 11 that remain in this country. but the allegations of defra defrauding medicaid, which is the program to provide for the poor, is probably more embarrassing to the russian government than even any spying allegations. is there a connection between the fraud and the spying or were they here allegedly to spy and
just because they had the time, decided to billing medicaid in the meantime? that s one of the many questions that remains unanswered. a lot of the people who work as diplomats, especially for the russian embassy are believed to also be doing spy duty. the fbi says that that kind of activity is at its highest point since the cold war. so it s not clear whether this was all a game to defraud the government. the attorney in manhattan says that this was one big corrupt group of diplomats who were spending some of this money that they were saving on their medical care they were spending it at prada and blooming details. and embarrassing to say the least. they have a lot to talk about here. still to come for us, icy roads and heavy snow causing plenty of this across the