US Charges 7 With Running Procurement Network for Russia Military – By Masood Farivar (VOA News) / Dec 13, 2022
WASHINGTON — U.S. prosecutors have indicted five Russians and two American nationals accused of illegally obtaining sensitive U.S. technologies and ammunition for Russia’s military.
The seven defendants were affiliated with two Moscow-based wholesale machinery and equipment companies that operated under the direction of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor agency to the Soviet KGB, according to a December 5 superseding indictment unsealed on Tuesday.
The two companies, Serniya Engineering and Sertal LLC. along with several others deemed “instrumental to the Russian Federation’s war machine” were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments following Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
The indictment says Serniya headed an “illicit procurement network,” evading U.S. and Western sanctions “to acquire sensitive military grade and dual-use technologies, including advanced semiconductors, for the Russian military, defense sector and research institutions.”
