Dual U.S.-Russian national pleads guilty to helping Moscow acquire sensitive dual-use electronics and military-grade equipment

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday that a dual U.S.-Russian national and resident of New Jersey pleaded guilty to helping Russia’s military and intelligence services evade American export controls on sensitive dual-use electronics. Vadim Yermolenko, 43, admitted to playing a “central role in a now-disrupted scheme with Russian intelligence services to smuggle sniper rifle ammunition and U.S. military-grade equipment,” Garland said.

Some of the export-controlled electronic components can be used in the development of “nuclear and hypersonic weapons, quantum computing, and other military applications,” the Justice Department warned in a statement.

Yermolenko also confessed to his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network comprising a “vast network of shell companies and bank accounts throughout the world” that moved millions of dollars through U.S. financial institutions.

Four of Yermolenko’s alleged co-conspirators remain at large. Co-defendant Alexey Brayman previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and is awaiting sentence, while the charges against Nikolaos Bogonikolos are still pending. U.S. officials dropped their case against co-defendant Vadim Konoshchenok — a suspected Federal Security Service operative — when he was traded back to Russia in the 2024 Ankara prisoner exchange that freed journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, among more than 20 others.