A Russian gentleman who had admitted guilt to the US and had been importing large quantities of military-grade nanotechnology into Russia was given a three-year prison sentence on Wednesday, according to the US Justice Department.
Maxim Marchenko, 52, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release after he gets out, the Justice Department said in a speech.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which started in February 2022, the United States and its allies have repeatedly imposed sanctions on Russia.
Marchenko was based in Hong Kong when he was detained in the US in September. He and two Russian conspirators were charged with using barrel companies to conceal the erroneous purchasing of OLED micro-displays.
” The cargo of military-grade nanotechnology through Hong Kong to Russia helps power the motor of Russia’s battle machine”, said Matthew Axelrod, assistant director for trade protection at the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
Axelrod continued,” Today’s punishment is just the latest case of our unceasing attempts to target and destroy illegal Russian purchasing networks.”
In a New York court in February, Marchenko pleaded guilty to two counts of contraband American products and money laundering.
Federal prosecutors said OLED micro-displays could be used in rifle scopes, night-vision sunglasses, thermal optics and other arms methods.
Marchenko and his associates made the false pretense that the dual-use technology, which has both civil and military uses, was being sent to China, Hong Kong, and other countries for use in electron microscopes for clinical study, according to prosecutors.
