Fairfax Company Accused Of Selling Military Technology To Russia

Crime & Safety

Fairfax Company Accused Of Selling Military Technology To Russia Two executives from a Fairfax-based shipping company conspired to send millions of dollars worth of military IT to Russia, officials say.

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Two senior executives from the Fairfax-based Eleview International Inc., made their initial appearance in federal court on Monday to face charges of transferring critical systems and technologies — some with military application — to Russia.

Eleview operated a freight consolidation and forwarding business with 54-year-old Oleg Nayandin of Fairfax as the company's president and CEO and 39-year-old Vitaliy Borisenko of Vienna, who oversaw day-to-day operations, according to court records . Between approximately March 2022 and June 2023, the two men conspired to illegally export goods and technology from the U.S. to Russia, accomplishing this by transshipping them through three countries bordering or near Russia.

"This company allegedly used not one, not two, but three different schemes to illegally transship sensitive American technology to Russia," said Matthew S. Axelrod, assistant secretary for the Department of Commerce Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security. "Today's charges, against both the company and two top executives, are a prime example of our work to bring to justice both the companies and the corporate executives alleged to have circumvented our rules in search of a fatter bottom line."

Nayandin and Borisenko are accused of operating an e-commerce website where its Russian customers could order goods and technology directly from U.S. retailers and have those orders shipped to Eleview's warehouses in Chantilly, according to the indictment. Those packages of goods would be consolidated before shipping them to customers in Russia, often using other freight forwarders as gobetweens in exchange for a feel, court records say.

"After the Department of Commerce imposed stricter export controls in response to Russia's further invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the defendants allegedly began shipping items to purported end users in Turkey, Finland, and Kazakhstan, knowing that the items were ultimately destined for end users in Russia," according to the indictment. "To facilitate these illegal exports, the defendants allegedly made numerous false statements to the Department of Commerce and other freight forwarders about the end users and ultimate consignees of the items in these shipments."

The two men are accused of exporting about $1.48 million in telecommunications equipment to a fictitious recipient in Turkey, knowing that Russia was the ultimate recipient of the goods, court records say. The telecommunications equipment had military applications, including use by the Russian military to establish and expand its communication networks in its war efforts against Ukraine.

"We must not allow critical systems and technologies to be transferred to anyone who may use them against America and our global partners," said Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "Guarding against these transfers is imperative, and violations of the laws that protect our national security will be met with ardent prosecution."

A similar scheme involving a fake recipient in Finland saw Russia purchasing $3.45 million worth of goods from Eleview's e-commerce site that the Commerce Department later identified as significant to Russian weaponry," court documents say. These included the same type of electronic component found on Russian "suicide" drones used to destroy Ukrainian tanks and jets.

"In the Kazakhstan scheme, the defendants allegedly exported about $1.47 million worth of goods to Russia through an entity in Kazakhstan that advertises its ability to deliver goods to Russia," court records say. "The goods that the defendants allegedly exported illegally as part of the Kazakhstan scheme included controlled, dual-use items."

Nayandin and Borisenko each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.