Federal prosecutors in the United States on Tuesday charged five Russians and two Americans with conspiring to illegally obtain and ship American-made military technology to Russia before and after its invasion of Ukraine, the paper reported.The New York Times“.
An indictment against the seven suspects was revealed during a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
The prosecution explained that the seven defendants deliberately collaborated with the Moscow companies “Serniya Engineering” and “Sertal LLC”, which “work under the supervision of the Russian secret services”.
The indictment says the defendants, since at least 2017, have proceeded to use a global network of front companies and bank accounts to acquire and ship to Russia electronics and advanced equipment that could be used in “quantum computing, nuclear weapons development, military equipment and applications.” satellite”.
Among those items, according to the indictment, are advanced semiconductor “chipsets,” high-quality spectrum analyzers used in electronic testing, and expensive plotters and signal generators for military or civilian purposes.
The illegal activities continued after the United States imposed sanctions on the two Russian companies and one of the defendants, Yevgeny Grynin, following the invasion of Ukraine by Kremlin forces last February, according to the US Department of Justice. United.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement announcing the sanctions that the targets were “active players in the Russian war machine.”
“Our office will not settle for aggressively prosecuting individuals who illegally purchase American technology to use to further Russia’s brutal war on democracy,” Brooklyn Attorney General Brion Pace said during the hearing in court.
In addition to Grinin, a 47-year-old resident of Moscow, the Ministry of Justice identified the defendants as “Alexei Ippolitov (57), Boris Livshits (52), Svetlana Skvortsova (41), Vadim Konoshinok (48) and Alexei Brayman (48). 48 years old).35 years old) and Yuvadim Yermenko (41 years old).
The defendants face many charges of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering, and up to 30 years in prison for each of them if they are convicted of the more serious charges, knowing that four of the defendants are tried in absentia or in court event of their release.
Braiman, who is a permanent resident of America, was released on $150,000 bail and after meeting several conditions, including handing over his passports and having an electronic monitoring device inserted into his hand or foot.
“Like all defendants, Mr. Brayman has the right to plead not guilty,” said his attorney, David Lazarus.
Yermolenko, a US citizen, was also released after posting $500,000 bail, while his lawyer declined to comment on the charges against him.
Konoshinok, who US authorities believe is an officer of Russia’s domestic intelligence agency (the Federal Security Service), was arrested in Estonia in a raid last week, pending completion of extradition procedures to the US.
According to prosecutors, the Estonian Ministry of Justice announced that the relevant authorities had found 375 pounds (about 333 kilograms) of US-made ammunition during a search of a warehouse used by Konoshinok.
