US Citizens Arrested for Illegally Exporting Tech to Russia

On Thursday, two men from Kansas were detained by U.S. authorities. They were accused of conspiring to violate U.S. export laws. This included illegally exporting aircraft technology to Russia.

Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky (59), of Lawrence and Douglas Robertson (55), of Olathe are accused of conspiracy, exporting controlled products without a license and falsifying or failing to file electronic information. They also face charges of smuggling contravention to U.S. laws.

For each count of exporting controlled goods without a license, they face a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment

They could also be sentenced to up to 10 years imprisonment for each count smuggling and up to 5 years for each count conspiracy or falsifying export information.

According to the Department of Justice the men were the owners and operators of KanRus Trading Company. It provided Western electronics (avionics equipment), to Russian companies.

The DOJ said that the men conspired to evade U.S. Export Laws by concealing and misstating their true end users, value, and destinations, and transshipping items through third parties countries.

The department stated that one example was when two U.S. soldiers received equipment from a Russian company between November 2020 to February 2021.

One of the equipment included a computer processor with a sticker identifying Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSB). The men claimed that they “concealed both the true end user as well as the destination” in the invoice that was sent to the shipping company. They identified Germany as the destination.

The department also found that the men had illegally transferred the avionics equipment from Armenia and Cyprus to Russia in May, June and July 2022. They did this despite being notified of the need for licenses back February 2022.

An interagency task force, “KleptoCapture,” was responsible for coordinating the investigation and enforcing sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The FBI and Office of Export Enforcement, both part of the Department of Commerce, are currently investigating the matter.