US Citizens Charged With Illegally Exporting Avionics to Russia
Two U.S. citizens were arrested March 2 for their role in a yearslong scheme to avoid U.S. export controls on aviation-related technology headed for Russia, DOJ announced.
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Cyril Buyanovsky and Douglas Robertson of Kansas owned and operated KanRus Trading Co., which supplied Russian companies with avionics equipment supplies and repair services. Starting in 2020, the two men worked to evade U.S. export laws by hiding the true end users, value and end locations of their exports by "transshipping items through third-party countries," DOJ alleged.
Between November 2020 and February 2021, Buyanovsky and Robertson worked to repair avionics equipment -- including a computer processor "bearing a sticker identifying Russia’s Federal Security Services" -- for a Russian company. They "concealed the true end user and end destination" of the item by falsely telling a shipping company that the item was destined to Germany.
DOJ said Buyanovsky and Robertson also tried to export avionics to Russia last year after the U.S. imposed broad sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. After U.S. authorities detained the shipment, the Commerce Department told Buyanovsky and Robertson that the item needed a license. Soon after, Robertson told his Russian customer that “things are complicated in the USA” and that “[t]his is NOT the right time for [more paperwork and visibility]," DOJ said. Later that summer, DOJ said they illegally exported the avionics by transshipping them through Armenia and Cyprus to Russia without a Commerce license.
Buyanovsky and Robertson were charged with "conspiracy, exporting controlled goods without a license, falsifying and failing to file electronic export information, and smuggling goods contrary to U.S. law," DOJ said. The export control violation charges come with a maximum of 20 years in prison, the smuggling counts come with a maximum 10-year prison sentence, and the conspiracy and falsifying export information counts have five-year maximum prison sentences.