Less than a day after unfurling a banner and getting engaged roughly 1,450 feet above Midtown, Angelina Nikolau, 33, who goes by Angela, and Ivan Kuznetsov, 32, were arraigned Thursday on felony charges and released under court supervision, CNN reported. Judge Janice Chen granted them supervised release, meaning they'll have to check in regularly with the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice as the case proceeds. The charges aren't bail-eligible under New York law, so jail was never actually on the table pretrial.
That doesn't mean the exposure is small. Court records list eight counts — burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, violation of a local law, possession of burglar's tools, criminal tampering, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct — and NBC New York reports that burglary, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief are charged as felonies, with the remaining four as misdemeanors. The couple could face up to seven years in prison if convicted. On how they actually answered the charges, reporting genuinely diverges. They're due back in court on August 24.
How they allegedly pulled it off
Sources told ABC News that the pair entered the skyscraper Tuesday night with tickets and secretly spent the night inside, and that a security camera caught them at 5 a.m. Wednesday going through a hatch on the 102nd floor. From there, sources say the couple appears to have used tools to loosen brackets so they could reach a stairwell. The pair maneuvered around a gate secured with cable locks and cut two of them, while separately, the criminal complaint described by Gothamist says an officer who reached the 104th floor found a broken lock on the security door, with damage estimated around $2,000. Court documents say police were first notified around 11:15 a.m. of a possible security breach.
A rescue with its own hazard
The criminal complaint describes the broadcast antenna as emitting high-frequency radio signals powerful enough to harm the human body, which meant it had to be powered down before NYPD Emergency Service Unit officers could safely climb roughly 1,250 feet to reach the pair, waiting about 30 minutes after shutdown. At the top, the couple displayed a black banner reading, "When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace" — a line frequently attributed to Jimi Hendrix, but ABC7 New York reports it actually traces to 19th-century British politician William Gladstone. Kuznetsov then proposed. He later told detectives he wanted to "do something special for his engagement," according to the complaint.
Who they are
Nikolau and Kuznetsov, both Russian nationals currently living in East Orange, New Jersey, are the subjects of Netflix's "Skywalkers: A Love Story," a 2024 documentary following the couple's unauthorized climbs of skyscrapers around the world. Prosecutors described them in court as social media influencers who engage in extreme risk-taking behavior, including breaking into restricted areas of commercial buildings, hanging from rooftops and free-climbing skyscrapers.
One detail complicates the romance framing driving most coverage: Nikolau's father told ABC News the couple is actually already married and that the whole thing was a performance — a claim neither climber has addressed publicly.
The aftermath
Their attorney, Jason Krinsky, said the district attorney's office "overcharged" the case, while the Empire State Building said in a statement, that there was at no time danger to tenants, visitors, and Observation Deck guests. Krinsky also mentioned a plea negotiation could be a possibility and that deportation is a concern, though he understands the couple to be in the U.S. legally. As for how security was actually defeated, representatives from the Empire State Building still haven't explained it.
Leaving court in the same black climbing clothes from the day before, the newly engaged pair said little. "Right now we are not ready. We just need to relax," Kuznetsov told reporters, before the two kissed for cameras and headed into the subway.
