Russian agent gets 10 years over export violations
A convicted Russian agent was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally exporting advanced electronics with military applications.
A federal judge in Brooklyn also ordered Alexander Fishenko, a dual US and Russian national, to surrender more than $500,000 in proceeds from the sale of goods to people with suspected ties to the Russian defense forces.
"Alexander Fishenko illegally shipped millions of dollars of high-technology products to Russian military affiliated actors in clear violation of United States law," John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
Fishenko was charged in 2012 along with 10 others and two corporations -- ARC Electronics Inc and Apex Systems LLC -- over millions of dollars in exports that federal prosecutors said were disguised as civilian transactions.
He pleaded guilty in September to a 19-count indictment in which he was charged with acting as an undeclared Russian agent and conspiring to export controlled microelectronics to Russia.
Five other defendants had previously pleaded guilty, three others were convicted at trial in October and three others remain at large.
Though Fiskenko's company ARC portrayed itself as a maker of traffic lights, between 2008 and 2012 he led a conspiracy to export advanced microelectronics frequently used in detonation triggers, radar and surveillance as well as missile guidance systems, according to prosecutors.
The company is now defunct.
The case comes as strategic and security relations between Moscow and Washington have been on tenterhooks over conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.