Face Behind The Name: Meet Iurii Chumak, Alleged Flight Attendant Groper

Meet Iurii Chumak.

The 53-year-old was arrested last month after allegedly groping a flight attendant while onboard a British Airways flight traveling from London to New York. Chumak, seen in the mug shot at right, was photographed by the United States Marshals Service after being forcibly de-planed in handcuffs.

According to the FBI, Chumak placed his hand up the flight attendant’s skirt and “grabbed her genital area” when she bent over to pour coffee for another passenger. Although the incident was witnessed by a second flight attendant, who immediately placed him in restraints, Chumak maintained that he had simply been “drinking on the airplane, fell asleep, and woke up in restraints.”

Since his bust, Chumak has been locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He was named last week in a misdemeanor criminal information charging him in connection with the in-flight April 28 incident (the filing of an information--in lieu of a grand jury presentment by federal prosecutors--often indicates that a defendant is negotiating a guilty plea).

Chumak’s lawyer, Sergei Orel, declined today to comment about his client’s case.