Current:Home > MarketsKansas businessman pleads guilty in case over illegal export of aviation technology to Russia -ProfitClass
Kansas businessman pleads guilty in case over illegal export of aviation technology to Russia
View
Date:2025-04-15 04:32:21
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas businessman has pleaded guilty to illegally exporting sensitive aviation technology to Russian companies in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Douglas Edward Robertson, who lives in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, was the second Kansas business executive to plead guilty to charges after being accused of smuggling, money laundering, violating U.S. export regulations, submitting false or misleading information to export regulators and conspiring to commit crimes against the U.S., all for profit. Their arrests and the arrest of a Latvian associate in March 2023 came as the U.S. ramped up sanctions and financial penalties on Russia over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Robertson, 56, entered his plea Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Kansas City. The judge set his sentencing for Oct. 3. Robertson pleaded guilty to four of the 26 counts against him and could face up to 20 years in prison for either the money laundering or export violations convictions.
According to prosecutors, starting in October 2020, the defendants sought to sell electronics that included threat detection systems and flight, navigation and communications controls, to two Russian aircraft parts distributors, a Russian aircraft repair firm and a Russian aircraft services company. They sought to hide their unlicensed activities by going through companies and using bank accounts elsewhere, including Armenia, Cyprus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the United Arab Emirates.
“Those who seek to profit by illegally selling sophisticated U.S. technology to our adversaries are putting the national security of our country at risk,” Robert Wells, the executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said in a statement.
One of Robertson’s attorneys, Branden Bell, declined to comment when reached Wednesday.
U.S. export controls were meant to limit Russia’s access to computer chips and other products needed to equip a modern military. The indictment against Robertson said the electronics he and the other two men sought to export “could make a significant contribution” to another nation’s military.
Robertson, a commercial pilot, and Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, an aviation engineer from Lawrence, operated the KanRus Trading Co. together and worked with Oleg Chistyakov, a Latvian citizen who frequently traveled to the UAE, according to prosecutors.
Buyanovsky pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiring to launder money and one count of conspiring to commit crimes against the U.S., and his sentencing is set for Nov. 14. There is no indication of whether Chistyakov has been taken into custody, and he has yet to enter a plea, according to online court records.
The indictment charging the three men lists nine exports of aviation electronics to Russian companies from February 2021 through December 2022 and attempts to export electronics once in February 2022 and twice in March 2023.
Prosecutors have said the U.S. government seized $450,000 in electronics blocked from export the day before Buyanovsky and Robertson were arrested.
“Robertson’s guilty plea is reflective of the strong evidence gathered against him by federal investigators and the solid case presented by federal prosecutors,” Kate E. Brubacher, the chief federal prosecutor in Kansas, said in a statement.
veryGood! (8)
Related
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- Could DNA testing give Scott Peterson a new trial? Man back in court over 20 years after Laci Peterson's death
- 13 Things From Goop's $159,273+ Father's Day Gift Guide We'd Actually Buy
- Yankees manager Aaron Boone comes to umpire Ángel Hernández's defense after backlash
- Pregnant Kylie Kelce Shares Hilarious Question Her Daughter Asked Jason Kelce Amid Rising Fame
- Wildfire threatens structures, prompts evacuations in small Arizona community of Kearny
- Yankees manager Aaron Boone comes to umpire Ángel Hernández's defense after backlash
- Charges against world’s top golfer Scottie Scheffler dropped after arrest outside PGA Championship
- Pregnant Kylie Kelce Shares Hilarious Question Her Daughter Asked Jason Kelce Amid Rising Fame
- Reports: Texans, WR Nico Collins agree to three-year, $72.75 million extension
Ranking
- Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
- The US-built pier in Gaza broke apart. Here’s how we got here and what might be next
- Travis Kelce Shares Honest Reaction to Getting Booed While at NBA Playoffs Game
- TikTok ban challenge set for September arguments
- Shilo Sanders' bankruptcy case reaches 'impasse' over NIL information for CU star
- Israel says it’s taken control of key area of Gaza’s border with Egypt awash in smuggling tunnels
- New Orleans mystery: Human skull padlocked to a dumbbell is pulled out of water by a fisherman
- Riley Keough, Lily Gladstone on gut-wrenching 'Under the Bridge' finale, 'terrifying' bullying
Recommendation
Former Milwaukee hotel workers charged with murder after video shows them holding down Black man
Reports: Texans, WR Nico Collins agree to three-year, $72.75 million extension
Riley Keough, Lily Gladstone on gut-wrenching 'Under the Bridge' finale, 'terrifying' bullying
Iga Swiatek saves a match point and comes back to beat Naomi Osaka at the French Open
NHL in ASL returns, delivering American Sign Language analysis for Deaf community at Winter Classic
Why Real Housewives of Dubai's Caroline Stanbury Used Ozempic During Midlife Crisis
Disneyland performers’ vote to unionize is certified by federal labor officials
Ohio man gets probation after pleading guilty to threatening North Caroilna legislator