A Russian banker accused of participating in a Cold War-style spy ring was to be released early from federal prison this weekend, it was reported.

Evgeny Buryakov pleaded guilty in March 2016 to conspiring with others to act as an agent of a foreign government without registering with the U.S. government.

In May 2016, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison and was fined $10,000.

Buryakov was initially supposed to be released on July 27 from the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, Ohio, CBS News reported Friday.

Evgeny Buryakov, a Russian banker accused of participating in a Cold War-style spy ring was to be released early from federal prison this weekend, it was reported

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman told CBS that Buryakov would be released early on Saturday before being deported.

ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls told the outlet: 'He will be transferred to ICE custody upon release from Elkton.

'Travel arrangements will be finalized in the very near term... but for operational security reasons, we do not confirm removal dates prior to a person's departure.'

On Monday, Walls told DailyMail.com that Buryakov is 'in ICE custody in Ohio and travel arrangements will be finalized in the near term'.

Federal Bureau of Prisons documents cite good behavior in the early release decision, according to the CBS report.

Buryakov was behind bars for 26 months - and that amount includes time served prior to his sentencing, the report also said.

Buryakov had agreed to be deported when he completed his sentence.

Russian outpost: Buryakov, a married father-of-two, worked at Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank in Manhattan

The twists in the Buryakov case are reminiscent of plotlines from the popular FX show The Americans about a married couple who are Soviet spies operating in the US in the 1980s

When Buryakov was arrested in 2015, prosecutors said he had teamed up with diplomats from 2012 through January 2015 to gather sensitive economic intelligence on potential U.S. sanctions against Russian banks and on U.S. efforts to develop alternative energy resources.

They also said he purposely failed to register as a foreign agent to conceal his true role as a covert operative embedded at a Manhattan branch of Vnesheconombank, or VEB.

In papers filed in Manhattan federal court in March 2016, it emerged that the FBI eavesdropped on meetings between Buryakov and his alleged co-conspirators, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy.

The FBI's snooping enabled the agency to penetrate the workplaces of the SVR and hear about Buryakov's work for it, prosecutors said.

Buryakov told a judge in March 2016 that he had agreed to let an official with Russia's Trade Mission in New York to direct him to take certain actions without having registered with the US attorney general's office as a Russian agent.

He said he spoke on the telephone in May 2013 with the official about information the official had requested.

The defense had argued that laws exempted Buryakov from registering because he already was a visa-carrying official with a financial institution that is an arm of the Russian government.

The government said Buryakov had obtained a work visa by lying on paperwork and saying he wouldn't commit espionage.

Eavesdropping: An FBI agent posing as an analyst at an energy firm would slip rigged binders containing purported industry analysis he wrote to a suspect Russian agent, who was required to return the binders so as not to get his source in trouble with his employer

The FBI began investigating Buryakov, Sporyshev and Podobnyy in 2010 after ten Russian spies living in the US, all members of a sleeper cell referred to as 'The Illegals' by the SVR, were arrested, including red-haired femme fatale Anna Chapman.

Neither Sporyshev and Podobnyy were not arrested, as they enjoyed diplomatic immunity in their respective roles as a Russian trade representative and an attache to the country's mission to the United Nations.

According to prosecutors, in April 2012, Sporyshev met an undercover FBI employee posing as an analyst at a New York energy firm at an oil and gas industry conference.

Over the next two years, they met to discuss the industry and other economic and political issues, prosecutors said, with Sporyshev providing gifts and cash for information.

In 2013, the FBI employee began providing Sporyshev with the binders containing purported industry analysis he wrote, supporting documents, and 'covertly placed recording devices,' prosecutors wrote.

In 2010, the feds arrested ten Russian spies living in the US, including red-haired femme fatale Anna Chapman (pictured at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013)

As the undercover employee said his company would fire him if it learned he disclosed confidential information, Sporyshev would promptly return the binders after reviewing them, prosecutors said.

The recordings that resulted captured statements of Sporyshev, Podobnyy, and other Russian intelligence personnel from January to May 2013, prosecutors said.

In one secretly recorded conversation, Podobnyy complained to Sporyshev that their work was nothing like 'movies about James Bond,' according to the papers.

'Of course, I wouldn't fly helicopters, but pretend to be someone else at a minimum,' he said.

Sporyshev griped that he too thought he 'at least would go abroad with a different passport'.

According to a criminal complaint, the three accused spies spoke to each other in code over the phone to set up their meetings and claimed they had an umbrella or a ticket for the others.

In person Buryakov would pass Sporyshev a bag, a magazine or a piece of paper with information hidden inside it.

Before his arrest, Buryakov lived in the Bronx with his Russian wife and two children.

VEB was in the news last week when it said on March 27 that executives held talks with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, during a bank roadshow in 2016 when it was preparing a new strategy.

The news came as the White House announced that Kushner, a top adviser in the Trump administration, had volunteered to testify to a Senate committee probing whether Russia tried to interfere in last year's presidential election.

'As part of the preparation of the new strategy, executives of Vnesheconombank met with representatives of leading financial institutes in Europe, Asia and America multiple times during 2016,' VEB said in an emailed statement.

'During the talks, the existing practices of foreign development banks and promising trends were discussed,' the bank said.

It said roadshow meetings took place 'with a number of representatives of the largest banks and business establishments of the United States, including Jared Kushner, the head of Kushner Companies'.