The U.S. Justice Department released the information below today:
Yesterday
in federal court in Brooklyn, Sergei Zharnovnikov, 46, of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,
pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit export violations. The defendant
exported firearms and ammunition worth over $1.5 million from the United States
to Russia, in violation of U.S. law. When sentenced, Zharnovnikov faces up to
20 years in prison.
“By his own admission, Zharnovnikov willfully violated U.S.
export controls to smuggle American-made firearms into Russia,” said Assistant
Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “The National
Security Division will continue to work closely with our law enforcement
partners to disrupt illicit arms networks and prosecute those who illegally
transfer U.S. weaponry abroad.”
“The defendant admitted that he purchased American-made,
military-grade firearms and re-exported them to Russia,” said U.S. Attorney
Joseph Nocella for the Eastern District of New York. “Today’s guilty plea is
the culmination of extensive investigative work, showing that this office will
not allow merchants of lethal weapons and Russia to flout U.S. sanctions.”
According to court filings and statements made during the plea
proceeding, the defendant is the owner of an arms dealer located in Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan Company-1). Since at least March 2020, the defendant,
together with others, has conspired to export firearms controlled by the U.S.
Department of Commerce from the United States to Russia. The defendant exported
$1,582,836.52 worth of U.S.-manufactured firearms and ammunition from the
United States to Russia without the required licenses from the Department of
Commerce. In one transaction, he entered into a five‑year, $900,000 contract
with a company in the United States (U.S. Company‑1) to purchase and
export U.S. Company-1 firearms to Kyrgyzstan. DOC issued a license for U.S.
Company-1 to export firearms to Kyrgyzstan Company-1. The license, however,
explicitly prohibited the export or re-export of the firearms to Russia.
Nevertheless, the defendant exported and re-exported U.S. Company‑1 firearms,
including semi‑automatic hybrid rifle-pistols, to Russia via Kyrgyzstan without
the necessary approvals.
According to an export filing, in connection with the
defendant’s contract with U.S. Company-1, U.S. Company-1 exported
semi-automatic rifles from John F. Kennedy International Airport to
Kyrgyzstan Company-1 on or about July 10, 2022. On or about Nov. 14, 2022,
the General Director of a Russian company that is a client of the defendant
executed a tax form listing the same semi‑automatic rifle‑pistols that U.S.
Company‑1 had exported to Kyrgyzstan Company‑1, the defendant’s company. The
defendant did not apply for, obtain, or possess a license to export or
re-export the semi‑automatic pistol-rifles to Russia.
The defendant traveled from Kyrgyzstan to the United States on
or about Jan. 18, 2025. The defendant traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he
attended the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show to meet with U.S.
arms dealers.
The FBI New York Field Office and U.S. Department of Commerce
Bureau of Industry and Security Office of Export Enforcement are investigating
the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ellen H. Sise for the Eastern District
of New York and Trial Attorney Leslie Esbrook of the National Security
Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the
case, with assistance from Litigation Analyst Rebecca Roth.
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