Part 1
Today, a 12-count indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging five Russian citizens Yuri Orekhov, Artem Ussa (son of the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory), Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, also known as “Lana Neumann,” Timofey Telegin and Sergei Tulyakov faces various charges related to a global procurement network, smuggling and money laundering. Also indicted were Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce, also known as “Juanfa Serrano,” and Juan Carlos Soto, who engaged in illegal oil transactions for Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, as part of the scheme.
On October 17, 2022, Orekhov was arrested in Germany and Uss in Italy, both at the request of the United States, and will undergo extradition proceedings.
“The defendants are alleged to have been criminal collaborators of the oligarchs, orchestrating a complex scheme to illegally obtain U.S. military technology and Venezuelan-sanctioned oil through multiple transactions involving shell companies and cryptocurrency. Their efforts undermined security, economic stability and the rule of law around the world,” said U.S. Attorney Peace.
“Today we are announcing the dismantling of a complex network of at least five Russian nationals and two Venezuelan nationals, each directly linked to corrupt state-owned enterprises that deliberately sought to cover up the theft of US military technology and profit from the black market oil,” the aide said FBI Director Driscoll.
Orekhov was allegedly a co-owner, chief executive officer and managing director of Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (NDA GmbH), a privately held industrial equipment and goods trading company located in Hamburg, Germany. Another owner of NDA GmbH is Artem Uss, the son of the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia. Kuzurgasheva held the position of chief executive officer of one of the shell companies of the scheme and worked at NDA GmbH near Orekhov.
Using NDA GmbH as a front company, Orekhov and Kuzurgasheva obtained and purchased sensitive military and dual-use technologies from US manufacturers, including advanced semiconductors and microprocessors used in fighter aircraft, missile systems, smart munitions, radars, satellites and other military space objects.
These goods were shipped to end consumers in Russia, including sanctioned companies controlled by Telegin and Tulyakov, such as Radioavtomatika, Radioexport and Abtronics, which served the Russian defense sector. Some of the same electronic components obtained through the criminal scheme were found in Russian weapons platforms captured on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In 2019, Orekhov traveled to the United States to purchase parts used in the Russian Sukhoi fighter jet and the American F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. Orekhov and Uss also used NDA GmbH as a front to smuggle hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela to Russian and Chinese buyers, including a Russian aluminum company controlled by a sanctioned oligarch and the world’s largest oil, gas and petrochemicals conglomerate based in Beijing. People’s Republic of China.
Serrano Ponce and Soto brokered millions of dollars in transactions between PDVSA and NDA GmbH, which were routed through a complex group of shell companies and bank accounts to conceal the transactions.
In one conversation with Serrano Ponce, Orekhov openly admitted that he was acting on behalf of the sanctioned Russian oligarch, saying: “He [олигарх] also under sanctions. That’s why we [действуем] from this company [NDA GmbH]. Like a front.”
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
