Upper Saddle River man pleads guilty to smuggling to aid Russia – NBC New York

A New Jersey man who was among seven people accused of smuggling electronic components to aid Russia’s war effort pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other charges, authorities said.

Vadym Yermolenko, 43, faces up to 30 years in prison for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering ring that sought to acquire sensitive electronics for the Russian military and intelligence services, said Bron Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn.

Yermolenko, who lives in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and is a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, was indicted along with six others in December 2022.

Prosecutors said the conspirators worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to buy electronic components from the U.S. that have civilian uses but could also be used to build nuclear and hypersonic weapons and quantum computing.

Prosecutors said the export of the technology violated US sanctions.

The prosecution was coordinated through the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture Task Force, an interagency organization tasked with enforcing sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland noted that Yermolenko “joins nearly two dozen other criminals our KleptoCapture Task Force has prosecuted in U.S. courts over the past two and a half years for aiding and abetting Russian military aggression.”

A message requesting comment was sent to Yermolenko’s lawyer from the Federal Public Protection.

Prosecutors said Yermolenko helped create shell companies and accounts in American banks to move money and export-controlled goods. Money from one of his accounts was used to buy export-controlled sniper bullets that were intercepted in Estonia before they could be smuggled into Russia, they say.

One of Yermolenko’s co-defendants, Alexei Breiman of Merrimack, New Hampshire, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and is awaiting sentencing.

Another, Vadym Konoshchenko, a suspected Russian Federal Security Service officer, was arrested in Estonia and extradited to the United States. He was later released from US custody in a prisoner exchange involving Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkovich and others.

Four others named in the indictment are Russian citizens who remain at large, prosecutors said.