By SDCN Editor
A citizen of Belarus and lawful permanent resident of the United States has been indicted for allegedly smuggling goods from the United States into Russia without a license.
Kirill Gordei, 34, of Hallandale, Florida, was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States; one count of smuggling goods from the United States; and one count of export of a spectrometer, a commerce control item. He was arrested on June 30 in Florida and appeared in the Southern District of Florida. He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
“As alleged, Gordei defrauded U.S. government export regulators and smuggled advanced scientific technology to Russian customers, placing personal profit over national security,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The Justice Department will use every available tool to disrupt illicit supply chains used to illegally funnel sophisticated technologies to Russia and other hostile powers.”
“Freight forwarders play an outsized role in the export of items overseas and, accordingly, are expected to help uphold the law rather than subvert it,” said Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod. “Here, Kirill Gordei — the president of a freight forwarding company — is alleged to have willfully evaded restrictions designed to degrade the Russian war machine by obfuscating the value and ultimate destination of a mass spectrometer.”
According to court documents, Gordei is the president of Apelsin Logistics (Apelsin), a freight forwarding company, located in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Apelsin also has an address in Russia and two websites, both of which are registered and hosted in Russia.
According to the indictment, on or about Aug. 11, 2023, Gordei allegedly falsely claimed that he was shipping an Orbitrap Exploris GC 240 Mass Spectrometer – an item that delivers high data quality and versatility to accelerate scientific discovery for academic and industry research and government and omics laboratories – to Uzbekistan when it was destined for Russia.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, a series of stringent export controls were implemented that restrict Russia’s access to the technologies and other items that it needs to sustain its attack on Ukraine. As of April 8, 2022, license requirements for exports, reexports, and transfers to or within Russia were expanded to cover the most sensitive items subject to controls on a Controlled Commerce List. The spectrometer, valued at over $600,000, was on the Controlled Commerce List and required a license from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to export to Russia.
If convicted, Gordei faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge; up to 20 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine for the unlawful exports charge; and up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for smuggling goods from the United States.
