services. and in 2017, he began working for automotive component supplierburg warner, eventually becoming director of global security. according to his brother, whelan was a world traveller, with friends in russia. he was also active on russian social media. after his arrest, russia claimed whelan was caught, quote, red handed with a flash drive with state secrets. whelan maintains he was set up. one of the friends he made in russia visited him the night of the wedding, right before the wedding happened, and gave paul a usb, just a usb stick and said that they were photos from a previous trip they had been on to another part of russia. as soon as he was given the usb stick and put in his pocket, his door was opened by the fsb and he was arrested and that was it. reporter: whelan was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in prison. the years since his arrest, the u.s. government has also