Five Russians are being tried in the United States for violating sanctions.
(Photo: AP)
Washington According to the US Department of Justice, it has dismantled a network that is said to have supplied Russia with military technology from American companies for its war of aggression against Ukraine.
A German company based in Hamburg is also involved, which the alleged perpetrators used as a pretext for their illegal operations. Some of the equipment delivered to Russia was discovered on battlefields in Ukraine, the ministry said in Washington on Wednesday.
Five men whose cases are being tried in New York are Russian citizens. One of them is Yuri Orechow, managing director of the company Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH, which is listed under the abbreviation NDA in the German commercial register. Orekhov was arrested in Germany on Monday.
The accused are accused of acquiring military technology from US companies and then laundering millions of dollars for wealthy Russian businessmen and entities under sanctions. The men are accused, among other things, of procuring semiconductors and microprocessors from the USA. The technologies can be used in fighter jets, ballistic and hypersonic missile systems, smart munitions and other military applications, the Treasury Department said.
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According to documents from the commercial register, the share capital of the German company is 300,000 euros. According to the articles of association of the company, which was founded in 2007, the company runs its business with the “planning, consulting and implementation of industrial plant construction” as well as the “trade, import and export of goods of all kinds”.
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Orekhov, his company NDA and another of his companies, Opus Energy Trading LLC, based in Dubai. Any assets in the US will be frozen, and US citizens will be banned from doing business with Orekhov.
New York prosecutor Breon Peace described the defendants as “criminal agents of oligarchs” who used shell companies and cryptocurrencies to carry out a large number of transactions. The deputy director of the FBI said it had succeeded in “disrupting a sophisticated network”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke. “Orekhov and his companies directly contributed to the Kremlin’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” the statement said. The indictments and sanctions come at a time when Washington is increasing pressure on the Kremlin to stop the war in Ukraine.
With agency material.
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