US federal prosecutors have indicted five Russians and two Venezuelans over their alleged roles in a complex scheme to purchase US dual-use and military technology prior to the invasion of Ukraine, US officials said on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors in New York have charged some of the defendants with using a German company to transport semiconductors, radars and satellites that can be used in combat aircraft, missile systems, smart munitions, radar, satellites and other military space applications.
The US Department of Justice said some equipment was found on the battlefields in Ukraine.
“Today we are announcing the dismantling of a sophisticated network consisting of at least five Russian citizens and two Venezuelan citizens, each of them directly linked to corrupt state-owned enterprises, which deliberately sought to conceal the theft of US military technology and profit from blacks,” said Driscoll, the responsible FBI assistant director. In oil on Wednesday.
Two of the five accused Russian citizens, Yuri Orekhov and Artem Os, were arrested in Germany and Italy respectively. Orekhov was CEO and General Manager of Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau (NDA GmbH), a private industrial equipment and commodity trading company located in Hamburg, Germany. The other owner of the German company was the USS and was the son of the governor of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai.
Banks, cryptocurrency and oil
The scheme allegedly involves money laundering via cryptocurrency, wholesale cash drops, and financial institutions in what the Justice Department has described as “high-risk” jurisdictions.
Regarding one of the money transfers, Orikhov allegedly told an aide: “There were no concerns…this is the smartest bank in the UAE…they pay for everything.”
The same network is also allegedly used to ship oil from the state-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA – which the US imposed sanctions in 2019 – to buyers in Russia and China.
Control of a potential nuclear proliferation tool
In a separate case announced Wednesday, US federal prosecutors in the US state of Connecticut charged four other people with trying to export a computer-controlled grinding machine or jig mill to Russia. The authorities intercepted the shipment in Riga.
This machine can be used in nuclear proliferation and defense programs.
All four people were citizens of Latvia or Ukraine and were arrested in their countries of origin.
“As I said, investigators and prosecutors will make relentless efforts to locate, locate and prosecute those whose unlawful actions undermine the rule of law and enable the Russian regime to continue its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.
zc/sms (AP, Reuters, dpa, EFE)
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