By SDCN Editor
A six-count indictment was unsealed charging a 60-year-old Wisconsin man for allegedly selling firearms and related parts without a license to buyers in Saudi Arabia, shipping the prohibited items, and then lying to federal inspectors about it.
According to the indictment, Mark John Buschman of Viroqua, allegedly conducted an illegal export conspiracy for more than five years, lasting from about February 2019 to December 2024. Buschman obtained firearms and firearms parts in the U.S. and advertised the items for sale on eBay and other online marketplace-style websites. When buyers in Saudi Arabia expressed interest in the items for sale, he agreed to sell and ship the items out of the country to them. Throughout the conspiracy, Saudi Arabian-based buyers paid the defendant approximately $398,000.
Court documents indicate that serial numbers from some of the firearms and firearms parts were removed before he shipped the items. The defendant then prepared the items further before shipping them by concealing the firearms and firearm parts inside common household appliances and tools such as toasters, coffee makers, space heaters, fans, and landscaping edge trimmers. For example, the defendant concealed rifle barrels in items such as car axles, and smaller pistols inside of toasters. Using a fake return address, the defendant shipped the items through the U.S. Postal Service to freight forwarders, which are companies that specialize in the logistics of shipping items from one country to another. The defendant allegedly shipped the items to freight forwarding companies that operated out of Ohio, New Jersey, Oregon, and elsewhere without declaring that the shipments contained firearms and firearms parts.
Buschman is charged by indictment with conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States; attempted smuggling of goods from the United States; transporting and shipping firearms with removed, obliterated, or altered serial numbers; mailing firearms as nonmailable prohibited items; unlawful dealing in firearms without a license; and making false statements to law enforcement. If convicted on all counts, Buschman faces a maximum penalty of 42 years in prison and fines of up to $1.5 million. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
