The US Department of Justice announced last night that two citizens were arrested on suspicion of selling US aviation technology to Russia. This, against the backdrop of the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Russia, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the announcement, Cyril Gregory Boyanovsky and Douglas Robertson, residents of Kansas City in their 50s, were arrested and are facing several charges, including exporting controlled goods without a license, forgery and smuggling goods in violation of American law.
The arrest of the suspects was carried out by the special task force established by the US Department of Justice in March 2022, called KleptoCapture, which was designed to enforce the sanctions imposed by the US on Russian oligarchs in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The task force is made up of prosecutors, investigators and federal analysts, who in the past year also acted as part From a global campaign against money laundering and the Kremlin’s evasion of sanctions During the work of the special force, more than 30 indictments were filed against supporters of the Kremlin and the Russian military.
US Department of Justice (Photo: ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, it is suspected that the KanRus company owned by the two sold to the Russians electronic equipment for airplanes, which is manufactured in the West. According to the prosecutors, the company also provided repair services for airplanes to Russian companies, and in order to circumvent the sanctions, the two hid who the company’s customers were, lied about the cost of the products, which were paid through foreign bank accounts.
Already in February 2022, a shipment of the company was flagged by the Ministry of Commerce, because it was without the appropriate license. A short time later, Robertson, who holds a commercial pilot’s license, claimed to a Russian client that “the US tax laws are complicated and therefore the invoices have to be worth less than $50,000, otherwise they will notice it.” After that, the shipment to the same The customer shipped through a third country.
As you may recall, a few hours after the Russian invasion, Biden announced that the US would impose sanctions on four of Russia’s largest banks, in addition to two financial institutions that had already been sanctioned. During the first weeks of the war, the US blocked Russia’s technological and security imports, imposed sanctions on banking investments and against the “corrupt billionaires”, and also blocked the possibility of raising funds from the US for dozens of Russian companies.