A 55-year-old Latvian, Oleg Chistyakov, also known as Olegs Čitsjakovs, has been indicted by a grand jury and charged with crimes related to a years-long conspiracy to sell sophisticated avionics equipment to Russian companies, in violation of US export laws.
The US Justice Department disclosed in a statement on Thursday, March 28, that Chistyakov is the third to be arrested and charged with the conspiracy led by a Kansas company and two U.S. nationals.
According to the superseding indictment, the Latvian conspired with US citizens Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, 60, and Douglas Edward Robertson, 56, of Kansas, to facilitate the sale, repair and shipment of US avionics equipment to customers in Russia and in other countries that operate Russian-built aircraft, including the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB).
Chistyakov was arrested on March 19 near Riga, Latvia, and remains detained pending extradition proceedings, the Justice Department confirmed.
In December 2023, Buyanovsky pleaded guilty to conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering and consented to the forfeiture of over $450,000 worth of avionics equipment and a $50,000 personal forfeiture judgment.
According to court documents, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and despite additional US economic countermeasures levied against Russia, Chistyakov and his conspirators continued to smuggle and export sophisticated and controlled avionics equipment to companies in Russia without the required licenses from the US Department of Commerce.
As further alleged, Chistyakov, while operating from Latvia, worked with Buyanovsky and Robertson through their US company, KanRus Trading Company Inc. (KanRus), to circumvent US export laws by purchasing avionics equipment from US companies for customers in Russia.
Chistyakov allegedly acted as a broker for KanRus by soliciting quotes, negotiating prices and terms of delivery, and facilitating payments between KanRus and customers in Russia.
The superseding indictment detailed actions allegedly taken by Chistyakov and his conspirators to conceal their illegal activities including by creating false invoices, transshipping items through third-party countries, such as Germany and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), using bank accounts in third-party countries, such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the UAE, and exporting items to intermediary companies which then reexported the items to the ultimate end destinations.
Chistyakov is charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of violation of Export Control Reform Act, multiple counts of smuggling goods from the United States, conspiracy to commit international money laundering and two counts of international money laundering.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy, 20 years in prison for each Export Control count, 10 years in prison for each smuggling count and 20 years in prison for each money laundering count.
Leave a Reply