A Ukrainian national accused of being part of a network that smuggled machinery with military and nuclear manufacturing applications to Russia was sentenced to 33 months in prison on a money laundering charge Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
Federal authorities said Stanislav Romanyuk, 39, was part of a conspiracy that acquired an $800,000 piece of precision equipment from an unidentified Connecticut manufacturer and tried to ship it, in violation of U.S. export controls, through front companies to a Russian buyer.
The equipment, known as a jig grinder, is capable of degrees of precision necessary in applications involved in the manufacture of missile parts and fighter jet engines. It has civilian applications and under U.S. law can be exported to European Union companies who certify an appropriate end use.
Prosecutors said Romanyuk’s network operated by locating small companies located in eastern European companies like Latvia and Estonia, both European Union members. The companies typically had revenues less than the purchase price of equipment and served as straw purchasers for machinery “ultimately destined for nuclear or military end use in Russia.”
“These front companies shielded the true identity of the Russian end-user from unwitting sellers of sensitive items, such as the Connecticut-based manufacturer in this case, and obfuscated the source of funds used to purchase such export-controlled goods,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
The grinder was shipped to Latvia for ultimate shipment by truck to the real buyer in Russia. But in December 2019, Latvian authorities, having noticed discrepancies in shipping paperwork, impounded it.
“As charged in this case. ..Romanyuk acted as an illicit broker based in Estonia, providing logistics and financial infrastructure to Russian buyers … and other Russian facilitators to procure export controlled technology,” according to the court filing.
Prosecutors said the jig grinder transaction was not the only instance in which Romanyuk participated in efforts to export sensitive machinery into the hands of Russian end-users, including the Russian nuclear program.
They said he admitted to setting up other companies to facilitate the export and transshipment of sensitive machine goods into Russia, and to working with a partner connected to Russian government entities such as RosTec, a Russian state corporation responsible for overseeing the research and development of Russian military technologies.
Romanyuk has been in custody for 30 months since his arrest. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden. Prosecutors said the Ukrainian national, who resided in Estonia, arranged for the illegal shipment of the equipment at a time when Russia was preparing its invasion of Ukraine.
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