A Kansas businessman has pleaded guilty to illegally exporting sensitive aviation technology to a Russian company in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Douglas Edward Robertson, of Olathe, a suburb of Kansas City, is the second Kansas business executive to plead guilty to charges of smuggling, money laundering, violating U.S. export controls, providing false or misleading information to export control authorities and criminal conspiracy against the United States, all for profit. Their arrests, and the arrest of a Latvian associate in March 2023, come as the U.S. tightens sanctions and financial penalties against Russia over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Robertson, 56, entered a plea agreement on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Kansas City, who set sentencing for Oct. 3. Robertson pleaded guilty to four of the 26 charges and faces up to 20 years in prison for any money laundering or export violation convictions.
According to prosecutors, the defendants attempted to sell electronic devices, including threat detection systems and flight, navigation and communications control, to two Russian aircraft parts distributors, one Russian aircraft repair company and one Russian aircraft services company beginning in October 2020. The defendants attempted to conceal their unauthorized activities using companies and bank accounts in other countries, including Armenia, Cyprus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the United Arab Emirates.
“Those who seek to profit from the illegal sale of advanced American technology to our adversaries put our national security at risk,” Robert Wells, acting assistant director of the FBI's National Security Division, said in a statement.
Branden Bell, one of Robertson's lawyers, declined to comment when contacted Wednesday.
U.S. export controls were intended to restrict Russia's access to computer chips and other products needed to equip a modern military. The indictment against Robertson said the electronic devices he and the other two men sought to export “could make a substantial contribution” to the militaries of other countries.
Prosecutors said Robertson, a commercial pilot, and Cyril Gregory Buyanovski, an aeronautical engineer from Lawrence, worked with Oleg Chistyakov, a Latvian national who co-owned Canlas Trading and frequently traveled to the UAE.
Buyanovsky pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to commit crimes against the United States and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 14.
Prosecutors said in court documents filed last month that Chistyakov was arrested in Latvia in March and a court approved his extradition to the United States, but he appealed the decision to Latvia's Supreme Court.
Chistyakov also wrote a letter to the court last month, which an English translation said he has been under “house arrest” for more than a year. The letter also said he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and other medical conditions that could lead to a stroke or heart attack during a long flight. Crabtree said in Tuesday's filing that he received a letter from someone claiming to be Chistyakov's Latvian lawyer requesting medical attention for Chistyakov.
The indictment against the three alleges nine exports of aviation electronic equipment to Russian companies between February 2021 and December 2022, as well as one attempted export of the electronic equipment in February 2022 and two in March 2023.
Prosecutors say the day before Bujanovski and Robertson were arrested, the U.S. government seized $450,000 worth of embargoed electronic equipment.
“Robertson's guilty plea reflects the robust evidence against him gathered by federal investigators and the robust case presented by federal prosecutors,” Kate E. Brubacher, chief U.S. attorney for Kansas, said in a statement.
