Nikolay Goltsev, a Canadian national, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar export scheme that provided advanced U.S. electronic components to sanctioned Russian military companies.
Goltsev used two Brooklyn-based companies to source and ship dual-use technology through intermediary front companies in countries like Turkey, Hong Kong, and the UAE, ultimately rerouting the products to Russia. The electronics, including components for precision-guided weapons, were found in Russian weapons systems used in Ukraine.
Goltsev demonstrated awareness of U.S. export laws and tailored deceptive communications to avoid detection. His wife and co-conspirator, Kristina Puzyreva, expressed support for Russia’s war in Ukraine in personal messages. The couple sought to profit significantly, with communications revealing they had ambitions to become wealthy through the scheme. Approximately $1.68 million has been seized in connection with the case.
The case was coordinated through the Justice and Commerce Departments’ Disruptive Technology Strike Force and the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture. The Disruptive Technology Strike Force is an interagency law enforcement strike force co-led by the Departments of Justice and Commerce designed to target illicit actors, protect supply chains, and prevent critical technology from being acquired by authoritarian regimes and hostile nation states. Task Force KleptoCapture is an an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that, beginning in 2014, the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine. Announced by the Attorney General on March 2, 2022, and under the leadership of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the task force will continue to leverage all of the department’s tools and authorities to combat efforts to evade or undermine the collective actions taken by the U.S. government in response to Russian military aggression.
Source
U.S. Department of Justice. (n.d.). Canadian national sentenced to 40 months for multimillion-dollar export control scheme. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/canadian-national-sentenced-40-months-multimillion-dollar-export-control-scheme
