NEW YORK (AP) — An alleged Russian Federal Security Service officer was among seven people charged Tuesday by U.S. prosecutors with smuggling sensitive electronic components to aid Russia’s military effort.
Prosecutors claimed the seven worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to procure electronic components in the US that have civilian uses, but can also be used to help make nuclear and hypersonic weapons and in quantum computing.
The export of the technology involved is heavily regulated and occurred in violation of US sanctions, according to a 16-count indictment unsealed Monday in Brooklyn.
Five Russian citizens were charged, including Vadim Konoshchenok, an alleged officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. He was arrested in Estonia last week and will face extradition proceedings to the United States, US authorities said.
“The Justice Department and our international partners will not tolerate criminal schemes to bolster the Russian military’s war efforts,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.
Estonian authorities found about 375 pounds of ammunition from the United States in a warehouse used by Konoshchenok, according to federal prosecutors.
The other four Russian citizens remain at large.
Also arrested and charged were Alexey Brayman, a legal US resident living in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Vadim Yermolenko, a US citizen living in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Brayman’s attorney, David Lazarus, said in an email that his client has not been convicted of anything and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Yermolenko’s lawyer said by email that he had no comment.
The attorney’s information was not immediately available to the other defendants.
US officials said the arrests had disrupted the procurement network allegedly used by Russian intelligence services, which they said had been operating since 2017.
US scrutiny of efforts to evade sanctions on Russia intensified after last winter’s invasion of Ukraine.