U.S. Jails Russian Businessman for Smuggling Military-Grade Electronics

The United States has handed a three-year prison sentence to a Russian businessman who admitted to smuggling military-grade electronics to Russia, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Maxim Marchenko, who lived and operated several companies in Hong Kong, was arrested in September and pleaded guilty to smuggling and money laundering in a New York court in March.

The U.S. accused Marchenko and two unidentified co-conspirators of using shell companies to buy and send dual-use OLED micro-displays to Russia in violation of sanctions imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The technology that Marchenko and his co-conspirators fraudulently procured have significant military applications, such as rifle scopes, night vision goggles, thermal optics and other weapon systems,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Marchenko had falsely told American distributors he was sending the dual-use goods to customers in China, Hong Kong and other countries for medical research and hunting rifles.

Marchenko’s shell companies moved more than $1.6 million to the U.S. between May 2022 and August 2023 to buy the equipment, according to the Department of Justice. 

Marchenko, 52, was sentenced to three years in prison and three more years of supervised release.

Money laundering carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years, while smuggling carries up to 10 years in prison, the department said.