Prosecutors said Buyanovsky and KanRus v-p Douglas Edward Robertson, 59, of Olathe, Kansas, sold and shipped controlled avionics equipment to Russian customers without the required licenses, after the U.S. government tightened export restrictions following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Robertson was sentenced to 32 months in prison after pleading guilty to export control and money laundering violations. As part of his plea agreement, he forfeited more than $450,000 in avionics equipment and accessories, along with a $50,000 personal forfeiture judgment.

According to the indictment, KanRus supplied avionics equipment, including U.S.-origin parts and repair services, to operators of Russian-built aircraft in Russia and other countries. Prosecutors allege that the company’s illegal exports included specific controlled components such as traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) processors, transponders, navigation receivers, and antennas.

Court documents describe repeated instances in which the defendants prepared two versions of an invoice for the same shipment—one reflecting the actual sale price, and a second, lower figure intended to accompany the goods and reduce customs scrutiny at the destination. In one 2020 exchange described in the indictment, a representative of a Russian helicopter operator asked whether a shipment’s declared value could be lowered to reduce customs fees, and Buyanovsky agreed.

In a separate instance, Robertson asked a Russian intermediary in February 2021 whether an invoice’s value could be adjusted downward, writing, “Can I change value to less than $2,500? Less paperwork for me.” Exports valued under that threshold were not required to be filed through the federal government’s Automated Export System.

The indictment alleges the conspiracy began by at least October 2020, more than a year before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Prosecutors say Buyanovsky and Robertson routinely falsified invoices, routed shipments through third countries including Germany, the UAE, Cyprus, and Armenia, and received payment through foreign bank accounts to obscure the true buyers and destinations of their exports. The conduct continued and intensified after the U.S. government imposed additional export restrictions on Russia following the February 2022 invasion.

U.S. attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said the defendants treated the war as a business opportunity. “Congress put trade restrictions in place to discourage Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine,” Kriegshauser said. “The defendants ignored those laws and saw the war not as a humanitarian crisis, but as a business opportunity to boost their profits.”

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting export restrictions, the indictment alleges that the defendants grew more concerned about detection. In an April 2022 email regarding a shipment ultimately routed through Laos, Robertson wrote that “things are complicated in USA” and that an invoice needed to stay below $50,000 because a higher figure would create “more paperwork and visibility,” adding, “This is NOT the right time for either.”

The indictment also cites internal communications documenting payments tied to the scheme. In February 2021, a UAE-based trading company, acting on behalf of a Russian customer, wired $159,625 to KanRus’ U.S. bank account for an avionics order. Weeks later, according to the indictment, Robertson exported the same shipment while declaring its value as just $6,118 and falsely listing a Germany-based logistics company as the ultimate recipient, concealing the Russian maintenance, repair, and overhaul company that was the true end user.

A third defendant, Oleg Chistyakov, 57, of Latvia, who acted as a broker for KanRus, was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to his part in the conspiracy. The FBI and the Commerce Department’s Office of Export Enforcement investigated the case.