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Andrei Samuilovski, 32, pleaded guilty on Monday to moving nearly $2 million in controlled US aerospace parts to Russia through a Dubai company he helped set up weeks after the invasion of Ukraine. The Justice Department said he admitted one count of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act.
Samuilovski holds citizenship in Estonia, Switzerland and Russia. He co-founded ITC Middle East FZ-LLC, which was formally established in March 2022. That was roughly four weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, a move that triggered fresh export restrictions and sanctions from the United States, the European Union and other countries.
Between the founding of ITC and September 2024, dozens of shipments moved from various US companies to the firm. Further shipments of US-origin goods reached it by other routes. Court documents describe the items as mostly export-controlled aerospace commodities with a combined value of close to $2 million. All were ultimately re-exported to Russia.
Sending those goods to Russia required a license from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security. The bureau controls the export of US-origin technologies held back for national security, regional stability and anti-terrorism reasons. Prosecutors said no license was obtained for any of the shipments. The scheme ran from early 2022 through September 2024.
Samuilovski entered his plea before Judge Carl J. Nichols. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and sentencing is set for January 13, 2027. The FBI and the Bureau of Industry and Security ran the investigation.
Court documents say Samuilovski and others conspired to supply prohibited Russian end users with aerospace-related components. The conspiracy began in or around early 2022 and ran through September 2024. Assistant US Attorney Steven Wasserman for the District of Columbia is prosecuting the matter, alongside Deputy Chief Sean Heiden and Trial Attorney Brett Ruff of the National Security Division.
The announcement came from Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg, US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia, and Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. That lineup places the case in the counterintelligence column rather than ordinary trade enforcement. The prosecution is being handled by the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's National Security Division.
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