US charges Israeli citizen with smuggling nuclear weapons technology to Russia

This was reported by The Jerusalem Post.

The US Department of Justice recently charged seven people with conspiracy to defraud the US, money laundering, and smuggling ammunition and weapons components to Russia.  Brayman is one of them.

The man was arrested on Tuesday, December 13. Together with him, an American and five Russian citizens were taken into custody, one of whom is a possible FSB employee.

The prosecution alleges that Brayman was involved in the illegal acquisition and sale of "highly sensitive and highly regulated electronic components" that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons.  They can also become components for hypersonic weapons, quantum computing and other military technologies.

It is noted that Brayman and other suspects are connected to two Russian companies, Serniya Engineering and Sertal LLC.  They run a network of shell companies and bank accounts under the direction of Russian special services.  These companies were also used to circumvent economic sanctions.

The scheme, according to which the suspects acted, consisted in the fact that two of them received requests to send the necessary technologies to Russia.  These requests were forwarded to former US resident and owner of a number of shell companies Boris Livshyts.  He also organized the above-mentioned deliveries and concealed illegal financial transactions.

Brayman, on the other hand, forged a number of shipping documents and invoices.  This allowed him to repackage and ship goods all over the world, including to Russia.

So far, Brayman has been charged with:

• bank fraud;

• fraud using electronic means of communication;

• conspiracy to launder money within the Russian network with evasion of sanctions.

 The man faces up to 30 years in prison.