2 US nationals charged with conspiring to smuggle American-made military equipment to Russia

• Two Americans and five Russians were charged with smuggling military equipment to Russia.
• The DOJ said the group was allegedly involved in the smuggling ring between 2017 and 2022.

Two US nationals and five Russian citizens have been charged with conspiring to smuggle American-made military technology to Russia, according to the Department of Justice.

The group is accused of using shell companies, fake addresses, and counterfeit shipping labels to transport "advanced electronics and sophisticated testing equipment" for the Kremlin between 2017 and shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, prosecutors said.

Some of the equipment they sent "can be used in the development of nuclear and hypersonic weapons, quantum computing, and other military applications," according to the press release.

The defendants with US citizenship are Alexey Brayman from Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Vadim Yermolenko from Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Alexey Ippolitov, Yevgeniy Grinin, Boris Livshits, Svetlana Skvortsova, and Vadim Konoshchenok, are the five Russian citizens who have been charged in the indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Grinin, Skvortsova, Ippolitov, and Livshits remain at large, according to the DOJ, while Brayman, Yermolenko, and Konoshchenok are already in custody.

Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement on Tuesday that the defendants are alleged to have perpetrated a sophisticated procurement network that obtained sensitive US technology to facilitate the Russian war machine, according to CNN.

"Our Office will not rest in its vigorous pursuit of persons who unlawfully procure U.S. technology to be used in furtherance of Russia's brutal war on democracy," Peace added.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum of 30 years in prison, according to the DOJ.

The group worked together to buy the equipment in the US, before repackaging and shipping it through several "intermediate locations" in Europe and Asia before it ultimately reached Russia, prosecutors said.

The products were sent through countries including Estonia, Finland, and Germany, before they made their way to Russia, prosecutors added.

Brayman and Yermolenko are alleged to have done most of the buying, and also to have helped Livshits set up and manage dozens of shell companies and corresponding bank accounts throughout the US.

Brayman's attorney, David Lazarus, told CNN that at this stage his client has only been charged, "he has not been convicted of anything. Like all defendants, Mr. Brayman is entitled to the presumption of innocence."