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 following its invasion of Ukraine, the newspaper reported.The New York Times“.
An indictment once morest the seven suspects was revealed during a hearing in the Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York.
The prosecution explained that the seven defendants deliberately cooperated with the companies “Serniya Engineering” and “Sertal LLC” in Moscow, which “work under the supervision of the Russian intelligence services.”
The indictment states that the defendants, as of at least 2017, proceeded to use a global network of shell companies and bank accounts to acquire and ship to Russia advanced electronics and equipment that might be used in “quantum computing, nuclear weapons development, advanced military equipment and military applications.” satellite”.
Among those items, according to the indictment, are “chipsets” of advanced semiconductors, high-quality spectrum analyzers used in electronic tests, and expensive plotters and signal generators. military or civilian purposes.
The illicit activities continued following the United States imposed sanctions on the two Russian companies and one of the defendants, Yevgeny Grynin, following the Kremlin forces’ invasion of Ukraine last February, according to the US Department of Justice.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement when announcing the sanctions that those targeted were “active players in the Russian war machine”.
“Our office will not be content with aggressively prosecuting people who illegally purchase American technology to use in furthering Russia’s brutal war on democracy,” Brooklyn Attorney General Brion Pace said during the court hearing.
In addition to Grinin, a 47-year-old resident of Moscow, the Ministry of Justice identified the defendants as “Alexei Ippolitov (57 years old), Boris Livshits (52 years old), Svetlana Skvortsova (41 years old), Vadim Konoshinok (48 years old), and Alexei Brayman (48 years old). 35 years old), and Yuvadim Yermenko (41 years old).
The defendants face many charges of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering, and a prison sentence of up to 30 years for each of them if they are convicted of the most serious charges, knowing that four of the defendants are being tried in absentia or in the event of their release.
Braiman, who has permanent residency in America, was released on bail of $150,000, and following fulfilling several conditions, including handing over his passports and placing an electronic monitoring device in 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 following depositing a $500,000 bond, while his lawyer declined to comment on the charges once morest him.
Konoshinok, who US authorities believe is an officer of Russia’s domestic intelligence agency (the Federal Security Service), was arrested in Estonia during a raid last week, pending the completion of extradition procedures to the United States.
According to prosecutors, the Estonian Ministry of Justice announced that the competent authorities had found 375 pounds (regarding 333 kilograms) of US-made ammunition during a search at a warehouse used by Konoshinok.