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(CN) — A Kansas businessman pleaded guilty Tuesday to scheming for the past three years to illegally export U.S. avionics equipment to Russia and Russian end users in other countries.
Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, 60, of Lawrence, Kansas, is the the owner and president of KanRus Trading Company Inc. Buyanovsky, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has been out on bail since his arrest in March, faces as long as 25 years in prison, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Per his plea agreement, Buyanovsky admitted he conspired with others at his company to smuggle U.S.-origin avionics equipment to Russia by filing false export forms and by failing to file required export forms. In these forms, he and and his conspirators lied about the exports’ value, end users and end destinations, according to the Justice Department.
In 2021, Buyanovsky smuggled a repaired Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System to the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation by removing the FSB sticker from the device before sending the device to a U.S. company to be repaired and then reattaching the sticker before shipping it back to the FSB in Russia.
And after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the U.S. further tightened export restrictions to Russia, Buyanovsky continued to purchase and export U.S. avionics equipment to his Russian customers. To conceal the illegal operations, he lied to U.S. suppliers about the intended end users, shipped the equipment through intermediary companies in Armenia, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus, and used foreign bank accounts in countries other than Russia to funnel money from his Russian buyers to the U.S.
“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to cut off Moscow from the means to fuel its military and hold those enabling it accountable in a court of law," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
An attorney for Buyanovsky didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, or airborne collision avoidance system, is a family of airborne devices that function independently of the ground-based air traffic control system and provide collision avoidance protection fora broad spectrum of aircraft types, according the superseding indictment prosecutors filed in October.
Other avionics gear that Buyanovsky illegally sold to Russian buyers included transponders, distance measuring equipment and antennas, according to the indictment.
Buyanovsky, the Justice Department said, has consented to the forfeiture of over $450,000 worth of avionics equipment and accessories, including a pallet of devices that was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection the day before he was arrested, as well as a $50,000 personal forfeiture judgment.
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