An American psychologist prominent in the foreign community, held in a Moscow jail, could be sent back to Atlanta, Georgia, within days on charges that she tried to defraud seven banks of over $1 million, an American prosecutor said Tuesday.


Since her 1991 indictment, U.S. agents have been searching for Beverly Dwight, 45, a psychologist who led a high-profile life in Moscow. Dwight had worked at the Anglo-American School, was attached to the American Medical Center, was president of the American Women's Organization, had a weekly radio show and conducted monthly seminars for arriving expatriates.


Acting on a request from U.S. law-enforcement officials, three militia officers arrested Dwight at about noon Thursday at the offices of Interdean, a German moving company with whom Dwight's relocation service shared office space, according to Viktor Bulgakov, a spokesman for the anti-organized crime unit.


Dwight looked "very upset" and "surprised" but went without incident, Duane Scott, the moving company's sales manager, said.


Since then, to the amazement of Moscow's foreign community, Dwight has been held in the Petrovsky Prison.


Two shocked friends said they received a handwritten letter from Dwight from prison Tuesday morning. Both Moscow women strongly defended her character and said she was indignant at being imprisoned.


"She doesn't say much in the letter other than that she can't believe it," said Colleen Moll, a friend who recently returned from a three-week African vacation with Dwight.


Moll and another Moscow friend, Kathleen Bachman, said they were both mystified as to why Dwight would have lived such a high-profile life since her arrival in Moscow over four years ago if she were a fugitive.


Bachman said Dwight wrote in her letter, "I have a big problem which involves David and his business," a reference to her common-law husband, David Carter. He is also named in the indictment and was last known to be living in St. Petersburg.


The indictment accuses Dwight and her husband of using their jointly owned catering business, Occasions Catering, to attempt to defraud seven banks in three states of some $1.2 million, according to John Malcolm, the assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta who drafted the indictment four years ago.


In loan applications to the banks, Dwight and Carter together misrepresented their identities, their financial assets and their business dealings, Malcolm said.


Bachman and Moll maintained it was more plausible that Dwight was duped into some kind of criminal activity by Carter than that she would mastermind an illicit scheme on her own.


"I don't think Beverly is capable of this," said Bachman, the business-development director for the monthly Russian Petroleum Investor. Bachman, like Dwight, once hosted weekly segments on the now-defunct English-language programs of Radio Maximum.


"There are a lot of people in this town that know Beverly and I don't think you'll find anybody who will say anything bad about her," Bachman said.


However, Malcolm said Dwight was not a casual or unwilling participant. The 42-count indictment names Dwight and Carter in 40 of the counts and Carter alone in the remaining two, Malcolm said.


"I know the difference between a witness and a defendant. I indicted Ms. Dwight because I and the grand jury believe she committed a crime," said Malcolm, in a telephone interview from his Atlanta office.


Were she to be convicted on every count, Dwight could spend the rest of her life in prison. However, Malcolm said this is unlikely under federal sentencing guidelines.


Because Russia and the United States do not have an extradition treaty, Dwight's transfer to the United States is at the discretion of Russian officials and is not likely to be delayed by procedural questions, Malcolm said.


An Atlanta attorney contacted by Dwight's family, Cliffe Gort, said late Tuesday night that Dwight may not have known of the indictment. Malcolm, however, said Dwight was declared a fugitive in 1992.


An official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Tuesday the embassy was prohibited by law from discussing Dwight's case until she authorizes them to do so. The official, who asked not to be named, was unable to say who, if anyone, at the embassy is responsible for keeping an eye out for American fugitives. Malcolm said he learned of Dwight's presence in Moscow from the U.S. Marshal's Office about two months ago but did not know how she was first located.


If a U.S. official in Moscow had been looking for Dwight, she would have been hard to miss. She made her living serving the American community by, for example, accepting referrals from the American Medical Center and working at the Anglo-American School as a part-time psychologist.


Other than confirming that Dwight worked for the school, upper-school principal Steve Bannell declined to comment on why Dwight no longer works there and referred questions about the school's hiring practices to director Kenneth Wrye, who is in London on business.


Dwight, who lived in the Kutuzovsky Prospekt building formerly occupied by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, was also frequently quoted in The Moscow Times as a dispenser of advice on aspects of expatriate life ranging from sexual promiscuity to child development.


In a February 1994 article, Dwight advised people moving to Moscow to adjust quickly by emphasizing three qualities: "flexibility, a sense of humor and the ability to tolerate failure."





-- Olga Abalakina contributed to this article.