News / Florida forwarder accused of smuggling sanction-banned tech to Russia

A Florida-based freight forwarder is facing up to 20 years in jail, accused of smuggling US goods to Russia in breach of Ukraine war-induced sanctions regime.

Kirill Gordei, pesident of Apelsin Logistics, was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit offences against the US, one of smuggling goods from the US and one of exporting a controlled item.

Assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen accused Mr Gordei of “placing personal profit over national security”.

He alleged: “Gordei smuggled advanced scientific tech to Russian customers. The justice department will use every available tool to disrupt illicit supply chains used to illegally funnel sophisticated technologies to Russia and other hostile powers.”

According to documents released by the justice department, the alleged offences occurred last August when Mr Gordei was said to falsely claim he was shipping an Orbitrap Exploris GC 240 mass spectrometer to Uzbekistan, when it was, in fact, destined for Russia.

Valued at $600,000, the spectrometer, used to analyse the chemical compounds of substances, is one of a number of hi-tech products on the Controlled Commerce List, requiring a government licence for export.

Following his indictment, Mr Gordei is due to appear in a federal court in Boston at a date to be decided. If found guilty he faces up to 20 years in prison, plus a $250,000 fine for the unlawful exports charge and an additional $250,000 fine for the smuggling charge.