US DOJ accuses three American citizens of breaching anti-Russian sanctions
American Eleview International Inc. is accused of transferring technologies worth millions of dollars to Russia via Kazakhstan. Given that the businessmen have done so despite the ban, they might be sent to jail for up to 20 years.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the company and its executives — 54-year-old Oleg Nayandin and 39-year-old Vitaliy Borisenko — allegedly exported sensitive technologies to Russia in return for millions of dollars, violating the sanctions against Russia. Both businessmen living in the state of Virginia came before the court on Nov. 4 after being accused of conspiracy to breach export control legislation.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said that the defendants conspired through three evasion schemes to circumvent the export restrictions imposed on Russia. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
«Between approximately March 2022 and June 2023, Eleview International Inc. (Eleview), illegally exported goods and technology from the United States to Russia through Turkey, Finland and Kazakhstan by placing online orders at American retailers and delivering them at a company’s warehouse in Virginia,» the DOJ said in the statement.
The agency also noted that Eleview International Inc. «made numerous false statements to the Department of Commerce and other freight forwarders about the end users and ultimate consignees of the items in these shipments.» In the Kazakhstan scheme, for example, the defendants exported about $1.47 million worth of dual-use goods to Russia.
In late October, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against 275 individuals and businesses — in 17 jurisdictions — involved in supplying advanced technologies and equipment to Russia in spite of the international sanctions regime. Kazstanex, a Kazakhstani intermediary company collaborating with machinery producers from all over the world, has already been hit with the sanctions.
In June, another firm registered in Kazakhstan, DA GROUP 22, was added to the 14th package of European sanctions for its assistance to Russia. All in all, the list includes 61 companies from Kyrgyzstan, China, Turkey and the UAE. In a separate case, both the EU and the U.S. announced their intention to impose secondary sanctions against the Kazakhstani Elem Group.
