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The US Justice Department said Tuesday it has reached a non-prosecution agreement with Extreme Networks, a North Carolina company, over sales to a sanctioned Russian weapons maker. The company will forfeit $487,860.92 and pay a criminal fine of the same amount, for a total of $975,721.84.
From about March 2018 to March 2022, the company's former Russia-based subsidiary, Extreme Networks Rus LLC, filled 11 purchase orders for networking equipment and services. The buyer was Moscow Machinery Building Plant Avangard, known as MMZA. The orders went through without the license or authorization required by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
MMZA is owned by JSC Concern Almaz-Antey. It was added to the Specially Designated Nationals list in July 2014 and was a primary producer of S-300 and S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. The company earned about $487,860.92 in revenue from the sales.
According to the department, certain Russia-based employees hid MMZA's identity from the company's global trade compliance group. That led to false electronic export information being filed through the Automated Export System, and goods shipped from the United States.
The department called the deal its first "Near Miss" agreement under its 2026 Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy. A near miss covers a case with full cooperation and remediation that still did not qualify for a declination. Here, the disclosure was not timely, because it came under imminent threat of disclosure by a news publication. A parallel OFAC administrative action was also resolved.
Prosecutors credited several steps by the company. It gave investigators facts and documents on time, made employees available for interviews, and ended its contract with the third-party distributor used for the sales. It also improved screening procedures, hired more compliance staff, and added diligence checks for mergers and acquisitions.
Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, said "if you attempt to arm our adversaries by violating U.S. law, justice will find you." The FBI's Charlotte Field Office, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. The National Security Division and the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina handled the prosecution.
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