Bulgarian National Sentenced in USA for Illegal Exports to Russian Military and Space Program

A Bulgarian national was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by seeking to export controlled electronic equipment from the United States to the Russian military and space program under false pretenses.

Tsvetan Kanev, 49, of Sofia, Bulgaria, pleaded guilty to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in March 2021. According to court documents, the defendant inquired with a U.S. manufacturer about purchasing radiation hardened integrated circuits that are commonly used in satellites.

Because those circuits are controlled American technologies under the Export Administration Regulations, they require a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to export them to certain countries including Russia. The defendant told the U.S. manufacturer that the circuits were sought by the Bulgarian Academy of Science, but the manufacturer was suspicious of the defendant’s claim and referred the matter to agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Counter-Proliferation Investigations Center (CPIC) in Colorado Springs.

HSI agents learned that the defendant intended to transship the exports from Bulgaria through Finland to an end user in Russia.

In October 2015, the defendant transferred $234,938.00 to the undercover agent to purchase clock driver and random-access memory programmable multi-chip modules. In December 2015, the defendant transferred $122,323.00 to the undercover agent to purchase a multiple analogue-to-digital converter. The particular technologies he sought are designed for aerospace applications and controlled under U.S. Department of Commerce regulations for national security reasons. The defendant paid the undercover HSI agents extra fees of $25,172.00 and $31,550.42 to compensate them for taking risks and violating U.S. laws.

The defendant was arrested in Germany in January 2020 and then extradited to Colorado. /BGNES