2 Russian Nationals Plead Guilty to Illicitly Sending Aviation Tech to Russia

Two Russian nationals living in Florida pleaded guilty this week to conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act by illegally shipping aviation technology to Russian end users, DOJ announced April 4.

From around May 2022 to May 2023, Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin conspired with others to obtain "orders for various aircraft parts and components from Russian buyers," mainly commercial airline firms, and complete the requests by getting parts from U.S. suppliers and shipping the goods to Russia. The pair admitted to knowing that the goods needed an export license license, DOJ said.

The Russian pair also admitted to trying to conceal the exports by "making false representations about the identities of their true customers and using straw buyer-companies located overseas to obscure the origin of revenue." In one instance, Patsulya and Besedin traveled to Arizona to meet with a U.S. supplier and said the goods were going to Turkey when they were going to Russia, DOJ said.

American bank accounts associated with a company controlled by Patsulya received over $4.5 million from Russian airline companies via Turkish bank accounts to buy the aircraft parts, DOJ said. Patsulya agreed to forfeit, "among other assets," the money he received from the scheme. The pair also face the maximum 20-year prison sentence for violating the Export Control Reform Act.

The Bureau of Industry and Security last year issued a temporary denial order against both Patsulya and Besedin, blocking their ability to export goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations (see 2305160047).