An Israeli national has been convicted of breaching Russian trade limitations on aeronautical equipment and received a $2 m forfeiture verdict. The Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement and the FBI investigated the case.
Gal Haimovich pleaded guilty to the charges against him, involving conspiracy to
Commit export control and smuggling violations. This was for his alleged part in a scheme to illegally ship aircraft parts and avionics from U.S. manufactures and suppliers to Russia, including for the benefit of sanctioned Russian airline companies.
As part of his plea agreement, Haimovich admitted that he had deceived U.S. companies about where the parts were going and that he and others defrauded the U.S. government by falsifying information and documents about the sale and shipping of parts.
Israeli national charged with $2m forfeiture for breaching Russian trade embargo
According to the Justice Department rapport, the defendant owned and controlled and international freight forwarding company.
Through this front, he illegally exported goods to Russia violating U.S. export control laws. It was found that between March 2022 and May 2023, Haimovich facilitated the “export of aircraft parts and avionics, including those with missile technology applications, from the United States through the Southern District of Florida to various third-party transhipped on behalf of Russian customers. These Russian end customers routinely instructed Haimovich to deceive the U.S.-based manufacturers and suppliers about the ultimate destination of the goods.”
As part of his guilty plea, Haimovich also said he billed Russian customers, including Siberia Airlines (doing business as S7 Airlines), more than “$2 million to have aircraft parts and avionics illegally exported from the United States to Russia.”
As a result of his plea deal, he has agreed to forfeit various aircraft parts and components and to enter a forfeiture judgment for $2,024,435.
This case has been spearheaded by the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture. This interagency law enforcement task force is, according to the Justice Department, is “dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.”
Image: Pixlr.
