The New York Eastern District’s Attorney’s Office has charged Estonian national Andrey Shevlyakov with 18 counts of acquiring and supplying US electronics to Russia in violation of sanctions, the office said in a statement.
“As alleged, for more than a decade, the defendant has been acquiring sensitive electronics from U.S. manufacturers on behalf of the Russian government, in defiance of U.S. export controls,” stated Attorney Breon Peace.
The goods Shevlyakov purchased included high-frequency communication equipment and analog-to-digital converters. These, the prosecutor’s office noted, are used in defence systems to respond to environmental conditions.
Shevlyakov’s communication with Russian customers included discussions about the presence of “military” goods in some orders. The man also attempted to purchase tools to hack computer networks, such as a licensed copy of Metasploit Pro.
The Estonian citizen engaged in these activities despite being on the Commerce Department’s list of individuals and companies prohibited from exporting goods from the US without a licence. He used false names and a network of shell companies to circumvent the restrictions.
Shevlyakov was detained in Estonia on 28 March. All his parcels were confiscated, one of them contained radio-electronic equipment weighing 130 kg in total.
If found guilty, Shevlyakov can be sent to prison for up to 20 years.
Earlier, journalists of the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT uncovered a scheme which allowed Russian companies to buy planes in the EU and avoid sanctions through a chain of companies in Turkey and Italy.
In March, a plane landed in Palanga, Lithuania, after departing from Denmark and making a stopover in Sweden. After its final point of the route was discovered to be Russia’s Pskov, the Department of Safety and Security of Lithuanian airports prohibited the aircraft from leaving the airport of Palanga.
As LTR journalists found out, the plane was bought in Denmark by a Turkish company Edermont Ltd. The president and chairman of the board of the company is Russian citizen Yevgeny Kabanov. The Italian MAK Aviation Services acted as intermediary in the transaction. Kabanov is its only shareholder.
In Russia, he owns the company Sovremennye Tekhnologii. It manages another company, MAK Aviation, but a Russian one. The organisation makes no secret of the fact that it helps circumvent sanctions. Such services are regularly advertised in the company’s Telegram channel.
