Pair in US pleads guilty to multimillion-dollar Russia-related export control scheme
A New York man and a Canadian national have pled guilty to a multimillion-dollar ‘global procurement scheme on behalf of sanctioned Russian companies, including Russian military companies,’ the US Department of Justice (‘DOJ’) said.
Nikolay Goltsev, 38, of Montreal, and Salimdzhon Nasriddinov, 53, of Brooklyn, New York, used two Brooklyn companies, SH Brothers Inc and SN Electronics Inc, ‘to unlawfully source, purchase, and ship millions of dollars in dual-use electronics from US manufacturers to sanctioned end users in Russia,’ making hundreds of shipments valued at more than $7 million to Russia, according to a DOJ press release, 9 July.
The accomplices shipped the items to a variety of intermediary front companies located in other countries, including Turkey, Hong Kong, India, China and the UAE, where they were rerouted to Russia.
‘Some of the electronic components and integrated circuits shipped by the defendants through SH Brothers have been found in seized Russian weapons platforms and signals intelligence equipment in Ukraine, including the Torn-MDM radio reconnaissance complex, the RB-301B “Borisoglebsk-2” electronic warfare complex, the Izdeliye 305E light multi-purpose guided missile, the Vitebsk L370 airborne counter missile system, Ka-52 helicopters, Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and T-72B3 battle tanks,’ according to the DOJ.
Goltsev and Nasriddinov are scheduled to be sentenced in December and they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Co-defendant Kristina Puzyreva pled guilty in February to conspiracy to launder the proceeds of the export scheme and is awaiting sentencing.
