Ten individuals suspected of serving as unregistered agents for the Russian government pled guilty during their arraignment Thursday afternoon in New York City.

The defendants included Cambridge residents Donald H. Heathfield—an alumnus of the Kennedy School of Government—and his wife Tracey L. A. Foley, who were arrested last week at their home on Trowbridge Street. Their real names, they revealed at today’s hearing, are Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova.

The couple was transferred from Boston earlier this week to join the eight other defendants arrested in the United States. Their arraignment comes after a multi-year investigation by the FBI and other federal agencies into a program that officials believe was sanctioned by the Russian foreign intelligence service.

The defendants, who could face up to five years in prison, lived in the United States under false identities and were charged with infiltrating U.S. policymaking circles.

Heathfield and Foley were charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to their lawyer, the couple wanted a quick resolution to the prosecution if that would best help their two sons, Timothy and Alexander Foley.

Heathfield, who graduated from the Master’s in Public Administration program at the Kennedy School in 2000, allegedly met with a U.S. government official involved with nuclear weapons research and was tasked with assembling data on U.S. foreign policy.

The outcome of Thursday’s arraignment serves as a crucial step in a spy swap negotiation between the United States and Russia. Judge Kimba M. Wood of United States District Court described a separate agreement in which the Russian government would release four individuals who are incarcerated in Russia for “alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies.”

Eight of the 10 suspects had been under surveillance for at least four years, and only one of the defendants is a naturalized American citizen.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.