MOSCOW, March 1 (RAPSI) – The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York has sentenced Russian citizen Alexander Posobilov to 135 months of imprisonment for illegally exporting microelectronic components from the United States for use by Russia's military, U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
Department of Justice cites U.S Attorney Robert L. Capers for the Eastern District of New York: “Today’s sentence shows that those who compromise the national security of the United States for their personal financial gain will face serious punishment.”
Posobilov was also found guilty of conspiring to launder money.
In October 2012, FBI made public the fact that eight people had been arrested on charges of unlawfully exporting high technologies to Russia for needs of the Russian military and special services. Four employees of Arc Electronics, a private Houston-based company, were arrested alongside the company’s co-owner Alexander Fishenko. Posobilov was one of them.
The firm took part in transactions aimed to purchase electronic components from US manufacturers and consequently sell these components to Russian firms. As the case material show, the customer of Fishenko’s company was Apex System having connections to a number of Russian enterprises.
According to U.S. Department of Justice “Export laws exist as an important part of our national security framework and protecting national assets from ending up in the hands of our potential adversaries is one of our highest priorities.”
The court found that Posobilov was one of masterminds behind unlawful sale and export of sophisticated microelectronics for use by the Russian military. In 2011, he conspired with Fishenko to found Electrodevices company in Singapore to circumvent the legal system and allay the fears of product providers. The company was used in those cases where the Arc Electronics could not negotiate directly on the supply of the required electronic elements.
There are a total of 11 defendants in the case, three of them have been placed on the wanted list. Four of the eight arrested - Viktoria Klebanova, Alexander Fishenko, Alexander Posobilov and Anastasia Dyatlova - have U.S. and Russian passports. According to newspaper Huston Chronicle, Taghiyeva has entered the USA on a student visa to study at the University of Huston.
Fishenko pleaded guilty to the entire indictment in September of 2015. In particular, he agreed in his guilty plea that he violated United States law by selling electronic components to Russia without required licenses. He also pleaded guilty to ancillary money laundering, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and being an unregistered foreign agent.
On July 22, 2016, Fishenko was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Same month Sevinj Taghiyeva was sentenced to time served. She voluntary self-deported from the United States. U.S. citizen Svetalina Zagon was found guilty in September and sentenced to time served as well.
Sergey Klinov, Yury Savin and Dmitry Shegurov were put on the wanted list.