The United States arrested a Russian citizen for supplying microchips to Russia. He faces 100 years in prison

[Carding]

US authorities have arrested Maxim Marchenko for supplying $1.6 million worth of microprocessors to Russia. This is not the first Russian to be accused of supplying electronics in circumvention of sanctions, which carry serious risks for various manufacturing sectors of Russia.

Conspiracy charges

US authorities have arrested Maxim Marchenko, a 51-year-old Russian citizen permanently residing in Hong Kong, on charges of purchasing $1.6 million worth of sanctioned dual-use and military electronics, RIA Novosti reports, citing a statement from the United States Department of Justice. Alleged accomplices are mentioned in the case, but their names are not disclosed.

The Russian is also charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering and smuggling goods from the United States. The maximum penalty under all articles is one hundred years in prison.

Purchasing OLED microdisplays

Court documents, according to Forbes, say that Marchenko manages several Hong Kong "front" companies-Alice Components, Neway Technologies, RG Solutions. Electronics were purchased for them. At the same time, the end users were China, Hong Kong, and other countries, not Russia.

The prosecutor's office claims that large quantities of OLED microdisplays, which can be used in night vision devices or optical sights, were purchased through these companies.

In January 2022, RIA Novosti reported that Russia was among the top five countries in the world that own technologies for creating OLED microdisplays. Ruselectronics Holding (part of Rostec) has developed the first such fully Russian microdisplay.

"A 15.5 x 12.5 mm microdisplay displays an image with a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels and a pixel pitch of 12 microns... The device is designed for individual information display devices, such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality (VR/AR/MR) glasses, photo and video cameras, as well as head - mounted and helmet-mounted video modules, thermal imaging devices. sights and thermal imagers, " the report says.

Other detainees

Marchenko is not the first Russian to be accused of purchasing electronics in circumvention of sanctions. This is the third such message in the last month.

Artur Petrov was arrested in Cyprus for supplying a Russian company with "a large volume of microelectronic equipment," TASS reported on September 1, 2023. Three days earlier, the Agency announced the results of the Federal court of the German arrest warrant Valdemar V. for the supply of electronic components in Russia.

The Russian Embassy in Germany called the persecution of citizens due to alleged cooperation with Russia "espionage mania". "The notorious' hand of the Kremlin ' is seen at every turn," Forbes quotes the embassy's comment.

Sanctions against electronics

The ban on the export of critical technologies and industrial goods, including electronics, was included in the tenth package of EU sanctions against Russia.

In the review on the risks of sanctions restrictions on the supply of electronic components, materials and other high-tech products to Russia, which was reviewed by Interfax, Director of the Association of Developers and Manufacturers of Electronics (ARPE) Ivan Pokrovsky pointed out that in a tough scenario, problems may arise not only in the IT and electrical sectors, but also in the automotive industry and mechanical engineering.

The most painful possible sanctions may hit manufacturers of Russian processors, a source familiar with the state of affairs in the industry explained to Interfax.

 

[Lord777]

Four people were detained and two others were charged in two criminal cases involving the illegal export of dual-use electronic products to Russia, according to the US Department of Justice.

As follows from the materials of the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York, referred to by the US Department of Justice, the persons involved in one of the investigations are Salimjon Nasriddinov, a citizen of the Russian Federation and Tajikistan living in New York, as well as two Canadian citizens-Nikolai Goltsev and Kristina Puzyreva; all of them were detained.

According to investigators, these individuals illegally purchased and sent electronic components worth a total of seven million dollars to the final recipients in Russia, acting as suppliers for the defense sector, through the companies SH Brothers Inc and SN Electronics Inc registered in New York.

According to the prosecution, the roles of these individuals were distributed as follows: Goltsev received orders from end-users in Russia, after which he directly contacted manufacturers in the United States, introducing himself to them under false names. Together with Nasriddinov, he purchased electronic components through these companies, which were then sent to various intermediary companies in Turkey, Hong Kong, India, China and the United Arab Emirates, from where they were transported to Russia. Puzyreva at the same time allegedly conducted the relevant accounting work.

The same federal court for the Eastern District of New York received a similar criminal case against Brooklyn resident Nikolai Grigoriev, as well as two Russian citizens: Nikita Arkhipov and Artem Olovyannikov, while Grigoriev was detained, and two other defendants are hiding from justice, the US Department of Justice said.

Grigoriev and Olovyannikov, the investigation believes, through their controlled company Quality Life Cue LLC (QLC), registered in New York, conducted purchases of dual-use electronic components for final recipients in Russia, allegedly related to the defense industry of the Russian Federation. Arkhipov, in turn, conducted the work of QLC e-mail while in Russia.

In the period from October 2021 to February 2022, a total of about 273 thousand dollars were received from one of the Russian organizations to QLC accounts, which were almost completely spent on the purchase of electronic components, according to court materials. At the same time, during searches authorized by a court order at Grigoriev's place of residence in June 2023, a shipment of 11.5 thousand such components was prevented from being sent to Russia, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

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Russian jailed in Europe for supplying electronics to Russia

A Rotterdam court has sentenced Dmitry K., a Russian national accused of supplying microchips to Russia to circumvent EU sanctions, to 18 months in prison. His company must pay a fine of 200 thousand euros. A Dutch citizen in such a situation would most likely get off with sanctions and fines.

Go to jail for chips

The Rotterdam District Court sentenced 55-year — old Dmitry K. to 18 months in prison, and his company-to a fine of 200 thousand euros.

The convict was found guilty of violating EU sanctions against Russia related to the export of electronic dual-use goods, including microchips. These goods "could contribute to the military strengthening of Russian companies," according to the court ruling, which was reviewed by RIA Novosti.

Dmitry has dual citizenship of Russia and the Netherlands. His last name was not disclosed. He was arrested in September 2022.

The sentence was milder than the prosecution's demands. The Dutch prosecutor's office insisted on three years of imprisonment and a fine of 350 thousand euros.

Sub-sanctioned activities

According to investigators, Dmitry supplied Russian companies with electronic dual-use goods that could be used for the operation of the Russian military-industrial complex. One of the convict's customers was Rostec, Business FM radio found out.

The destination country was hidden. According to the documents, electronics and chips were sent to the Maldives and other countries. Thus, goods worth a total of 1.4 million euros were sold to Russia in seven months.

Biased verdict

The lawyer of the convicted Russian claims that there is no evidence in the case that the goods sent to Russia were used for military purposes.

A year and a half in prison for a purely speculative and non — obvious offense is a very long time. This is probably due to the fact that Dmitry, in addition to the Dutch, also has Russian citizenship, said Alexander Treshchev, an expert in international and American law, to Business FM.

The expert believes that no one would have brought the Dutchman to criminal responsibility in such a situation. In the worst case scenario, they would have imposed sanctions on the company or awarded an additional fine.

"But we live in a strange time and in a strange world where basic rights and postulates are being violated. If earlier everyone was considered honest, until the opposite is proved, then we did not notice how almost all themis of Western countries shifted the burden of proving their innocence to the suspect, instead of law enforcement officers collecting an evidence base," Treshchev said.

The number of such cases is growing

The ban on the export of critical technologies and industrial goods, including electronics, was included in the tenth package of EU sanctions against Russia. The number of cases against Russians for circumventing these restrictions is growing.

In September 2023, CNews reported on the arrest of Maxim Marchenko in the United States on charges of purchasing sanctioned dual-use and military electronics. In late August, 2023, the Federal court of Germany issued a warrant for the arrest of Valdemar V. for the supply of electronic components in Russia.

Also in August, Artur Petrov was arrested in Cyprus at the request of the United States for supplying a Russian company with "a large amount of microelectronic equipment." On October 30, 2023, TASS reported that the Larnaca District Court refused to release Petrov on bail because of some cases when those released on bail fled the country. It is not specified which cases caused the refusal.

 

[Teacher]

Russian citizen Maxim Marchenko, who lived in Hong Kong, pleaded guilty in Federal Court for the Southern District of New York to smuggling US-made dual-use products and money laundering, the US Department of Justice reports on its official website.

"Maxim Marchenko admitted in court that he illegally tried to purchase military microelectronics manufactured in the United States for delivery to end-users in Russia," said Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

According to the Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice's National Security Division, Matthew J. McCarthy. Olsen, a 51-year-old Russian, by his own admission, "conspired to smuggle military technology into the Russian Federation, using a complex network of front companies to hide illegal activities."

So, Marchenko pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering, the maximum penalty for which is 20 years in prison, and one count of smuggling goods from the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

According to the US Department of Justice, the Russian citizen will be sentenced on May 29.

 

[Teacher]

In 1999, when the BONY (Bank of New York) scandal, suspected of money laundering by the "Russian mafia", was rumbling around America and the world around it, I helped a New York Times journalist writing on this topic, Raymond Bonner, meet with one of the "actors" of this scandal, as it has now become fashionable to say Semyon Yudkovich Mogilevich.

The meeting took place at the elite Marco Polo Hotel in Moscow, where Mogilevich came with his lawyer, and Bonner, himself a lawyer by training, with the Moscow correspondent of his newspaper and with me. The conversation turned out to be normal, and Bonner asked if Mogilevich was a thief, and the latter joked that it wasn't a thief who hadn't been caught.

When the guest asked whether Mogilevich was involved in money laundering, Mogilevich became serious and replied that it was a promising business, money, and he was ready to conclude a contract with the American bath and laundry company Johnson & Johnson for centralized money laundering with subsequent drying and delivery to customers. In her article, Bonner did not mention this episode, so as not to look like a fool, although suspicions turned into accusations, since Mogilevich had something to suspect. For the possibility of his arrest, our Ministry of Justice offered $ 5 million, on which the case stalled, and during this time in Moscow, where he lives openly, Mogilevich managed to enter the list of Foreign Policy magazine's five hundred most influential people in the world and the FBI's list of ten most wanted fugitives, as well as serve a year and a half in prison."Matrosskaya Tishina" on suspicion of tax evasion, which was not confirmed.

I mean, over the years, I've become more cautious about high-profile preliminary money laundering charges, but after a verdict or guilty plea, they sound reasonable and balanced. Here, for example: "A defendant who participated in an illegal international procurement network that, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, illegally purchased a large number of military-grade dual-use light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for Russian end-users"…. In a February 29 press release from the Department of Justice, it was printed in capital letters, but in smaller letters it continued: "Maxim Marchenko, 51, a Russian citizen living in Hong Kong, today pleaded guilty to money laundering and smuggling goods from the United States." Well, I recognized it, as they say to the free will, and even more so to the involuntary.

From the case file compiled by the Federal Prosecutor's Office for the Southern District of New York, as well as from the words of Diana Izutkina, Marchenko's wife, it follows that they were detained with Maxim on September 17, 2023 on one of the 300 islands of the republic and the former English colony of Fiji, an archipelago in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, recognized as a resort paradise. planets. According to Diana, they were handcuffed and taken to the island's airport, where two of our FBI agents — Jason Wake and "a woman named Oksana" - entered their office. They said they were going to extradite Marchenko to the United States, and Izutkina would be kept in prison in Fiji, where Diana spent three days, and then returned to Hong Kong to live with her children aged 14 and 12. Maxim was transferred to New York on the same day, where he was taken to a federal court in the town of White Plains in New York's Westchester County, 40 minutes from Manhattan, and charged, after which he was placed in an unspecified prison, but he does not appear in the databases of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and prisons of the State of New York.. He is being defended by attorneys Kerry Lawrence and Benjamin Alley, also of White Plains, and Judge Nelson Roman will sentence Marchenko on June 6. The charge against Maksim Marchenko could have resulted in up to 30 years in prison (20 for money laundering and 10 for smuggling), but a guilty plea would significantly reduce this maximum. The case came under the jurisdiction of the White Plains Federal Court because it all started in October 2014, when the Russian company Radiofeed became the customer of the American Company-1, located in New York's Dutchess County, one of eight in the jurisdiction of this court, including Westchester. In 2020-2021, Company-1 called Radiofid a military company, and Company-1 orders went to Russia through Marchenko.

According to Oleg Zalesov, a friend of the Marchenko family, in the" zero " years Maxim lived in Moscow and through his Mobilz store sold Motorola and Alcatel mobile phones with delivery across Russia, as well as to Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Then he went to China, where he continued to sell electronics. There he met Diana Izutkina, who before leaving for China lived in Zelenograd near Moscow and also sold consumer electronics. In 2006, they got married, and in 2008, the eldest son Kirill, who has Chinese citizenship, was born. In the same year, Marchenko founded and registered Neway Techno-logies Ltd. in Hong Kong, followed by RG Solutions Ltd and SSP Ltd, which sold electronics, a juve-lir company, an online store Namfleg, and a "Russian" foodshop with Lithuanian, Polish, Belarusian and Georgian products. which closed after his arrest, but he was not known as a supplier of prohibited goods to Russia.

As Izutkina said in an interview with the Russian RT channel, about a month before his arrest, Marchenko agreed with an "American electronics supplier" to buy a batch worth more than a million dollars, and asked to send the order by USPS federal mail in parcels worth up to 2.5 thousand rubles. dollars each, so that there are no unnecessary questions at customs. We agreed to meet in Fiji, and on September 14 Maxim and Diana flew there from Hong Kong, going to fish at the same time. "When the negotiations ended, our interlocutor allegedly went to a hotel room, and we were suddenly surrounded by Fijians," she told RT. "They said that we were being detained, handed us two sheets of pink and green paper, did not let us read what was written there, and immediately put me and my husband in handcuffs." As it was established by the court and confirmed by the defendant, on September 17, that is, on the day of his arrest, Marchenko met with this very "American electronics supplier", who was an undercover FBI agent. Maxim was supposed to pick up two and a half thousand microdisplays that he had already paid for, but he couldn't pick them up for six months, because the Commerce Department was slowing down their shipment from the United States for fear that they would end up in Russia. Marchenko told the vendor that he had a laser in case the microdisplays had to be stripped of serial numbers.

In an interview with the Russian RT channel, Izutkina said that " for about 20 years, my husband has been engaged in the commercial supply of electronic components. He is an ordinary entrepreneur, did not violate anything, did not trade in any prohibited products, " but our law enforcement officers, and Marchenko himself, have a different opinion. "By his own admission," Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department's National security division, said in a press release," Marchenko conspired to smuggle military technology into Russia through a complex network of shell companies to cover up this illegal activity. Today, the Justice Department is once again holding accountable those who contribute to the Kremlin's unjust war against Ukraine." Federal Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams did not lag behind and said that Marchenko confirmed to Judge Roman, who, by the way, was appointed by President Obama in 2013, that he illegally purchased such microelectronics manufactured in the United States with the ultimate goal of delivery to Russia. These products, Williams said, can be used in optical sights, night vision goggles, thermal optics and other weapons, all of which he did through dummy companies and other sophisticated money laundering combinations. The press release also noted the FBI's Deputy Director for National Security Larissa Knapp and Deputy Secretary of Commerce for Export Control Matthew Axelrod, who stressed the need to be more vigilant in checking the trade of American goods for the Russian military through third countries such as China.

The case involves Marchenko's companies Alice Components, Neway Technologies and RG Solutions Limited. The case involves two of his accomplices, Russian citizens SS-1 and SS-2, whose role was noted in a press release by Damian Williams. "This purchasing network fraudulently received large quantities of dual-use microelectronics, military-grade microdisplays, in particular OLEDs, from American distributors. To implement this scheme, Marchenko and his co-conspirators used front companies located in Hong Kong to hide from US government agencies and American distributors that the OLED microdisplays were intended for Russia." SS-1 is known to be the co-owner and General director of the St. Petersburg-based SPC companyTopaz", which is engaged in wholesale trade in electronics, and "SS-2" employee of the St. Petersburg company "Infotekhnika", which sold electronics, was dependent on "Topaz" and closed in August last year.

According to the prosecution, Marchenko's front companies transferred more than $ 1.6 million to the United States. to support a binary electronics smuggling scheme that operated from May 2022 to August 2023. With the" supplier", who turned out to be an FBI agent, Maxim Marchenko paid through his jewelry company Namfleg. The co-owner of this company is Russian Ilya Gelfman. He lives in Zurich, owns the luxury watch brand Gelfman and is a shareholder in the Swiss auction house Ineichen. The indictment against Marchenko states that "participants in the conspiracy, including Marchenko, falsely represented to American distributors (who, in turn, had to report to American agencies) that Alice Components was sending shipments to end users located in China, Hong Kong and other countries outside of Russia for use in electron microscopes for medical devices." research. In reality, OLED microdisplays were intended for end users in Russia." According to the prosecutor's office, Marchenko's Russian associates, and through them he, were connected to the Russian military-industrial complex, and through his Hong Kong companies, electronics could be supplied to Russian companies under sanctions to support the war in Ukraine. The indictment cites Marchenko's words from June 29, 2022, when he told an accomplice that the day before the White House had blacklisted five Chinese companies for supporting the Russian military and defense industry. "Then we'll be even more careful," the accomplice replied.

 

[Carding Forum]

The Federal Court of the Southern District of New York sentenced Maxim Marchenko to three years in prison, who confessed to illegally exporting US-made dual-use products to the Russian Federation and money laundering.