Maly returned to Moscow and worked at the Lubyanka. Any hope of returning to Europe was dashed with the defections of Ignace Reiss in July 1937 and Walter Krivitsky in October 1937. Alexander Orlov reports in the "Secret History" that Maly disappeared from his post in November 1937 but is contradicted in West's "Crown Jewels", which cites a document that indicates that Maly was still at work on May 23, 1938. Although the exact date of Maly's arrest is unknown, it was probably after May 1938 and before Orlov's own defection to North America in July 1938.