Prosecutors in the United States say a Montreal woman has pleaded guilty to participating in a plan to illegally export electronic components worth millions of dollars to Russia for military purposes.
Kristina Puzyreva, a Russian-Canadian, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of money laundering conspiracy, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“As she admitted today, the defendant was a key part of the plan, laundering the proceeds of the scheme to evade sanctions and ship [un véhicule aérien sans pilote] and missile components to Russia that were later found on the battlefield in Ukraine,” prosecutor Breon Peace said in a statement.
U.S. authorities say Puzyreva and two alleged accomplices purchased electronic components that have civilian and military uses and cannot be legally exported to Russia.
U.S. authorities alleged that Puzyreva — along with her husband, Nikolai Goltsev, and Salimdzhon Nasriddinov, a Russian and Tajik citizen living in New York — purchased U.S.-origin electronic components subject to export controls to Russia because that they can also be used for military purposes.
U.S. prosecutors say the scheme used a series of front companies to ship the components through third countries to evade sanctions imposed by the United States after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Kristina Puzyreva and her co-defendants allegedly purchased and shipped millions of dollars of American-made electronic devices to support the Kremlin in its ongoing attacks against Ukraine,” Erin Keegan, Acting Special Agent in Charge, said in a statement. internal security investigations.
“His money laundering conspiracy was directly linked to 298 shipments of restricted technology, worth $7 million, to the Russian battlefield. »
U.S. officials say some electronic components have been discovered in drones, missiles and signals intelligence equipment captured on the battlefield in Ukraine.
At a hearing last October, Assistant Prosecutor Artie McConnell told the court that Goltsev received orders for electronic components from Russian military end users and then purchased those components from U.S. companies, often using a pseudonym.
Nasriddinov allegedly received deliveries of components, which he then repackaged for export.
Goltsev and Nasriddinov have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Puzyreva faced a total of nine charges, including wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, smuggling and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Prosecutors have not yet submitted a sentencing recommendation to the court.