Kristina Puzyreva and Nikolay Goltsev, a couple from Montreal, are shown in an undated photo from Facebook. Puzyreva pleaded guilty Monday to money laundering conspiracy as part of a scheme to illegally supply $7 million in U.S. electronics to Russia for battlefield use in Ukraine. (Facebook)
A dual Russian-Canadian citizen who talked of getting rich from a scheme to funnel millions of dollars of electronics to Russia for its war in Ukraine is instead facing up to 20 years in prison, according to federal authorities.
Kristina Puzyreva of Montreal pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to money laundering conspiracy, a Justice Department statement said. She had been charged with wire fraud and conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions.
“The defendant was a necessary player in a scheme to evade export controls and sanctions,” Breon Peace, a federal attorney in Brooklyn, said in the statement. “Without the defendant laundering the proceeds ... the export scheme would not have worked.”
Together with her husband, Nikolay Goltsev, and New York resident Salimdzhon Nasriddinov, Puzyreva supplied $7 million in dual-use electronic components to the Russian military, prosecutors said.
Goltsev and Nasriddinov were also indicted in the scheme, which began in 2022, and their prosecution is pending, the Justice Department said Monday.
In an undated photo, packages containing electronic components intended for shipment to Russia are shown stacked in the New York apartment of Salimdzhon Nasriddinov. The components were part of a scheme to send electronics from the U.S. to Russia, which used the technology to wage war on Ukraine, federal prosecutors said. (Justice Department)
The components were later found in helicopters, missiles, tanks and other Russian weapons and signal intelligence equipment used in Ukraine, according to a DOJ statement in November.
The three defendants worked with contacts at electronics companies that supply components to the Russian military and created multiple accounts to evade sanctions and ship parts used in drones, guided missile systems and other weapons, according to U.S. investigators.
They received orders from Russian entities and then used two front companies registered in Brooklyn to unlawfully purchase American electronic parts for the Russian military over several years.
Over two years, Puzyreva and Goltsev were directly linked to 298 shipments of restricted technology valued at $7 million, the DOJ statement Monday said.
Puzyreva conducted transactions via Simatech Group, an electronics firm in Montreal that acquired dual-use technology, electronics and mechanical parts for both civilian and military applications, prosecutors said.
They then shipped the parts through intermediaries in Turkey, Hong Kong, India, China and the United Arab Emirates for rerouting to Russia, according to the Justice Department.
They also made several trips to New York to meet with Nasriddinov, and during these visits, Puzyreva used various bank accounts that showed large, structured cash deposits, which were transferred to the couple’s accounts in Canada, the DOJ said.
Approximately $1.7 million was seized by authorities in connection with the export scheme, including $20,000 in cash from the Manhattan hotel room where the couple was arrested in late October, the Justice Department said.
In a January 2023 text message released by the Justice Department, Goltsev told his wife that he had been asked to make 80 accounts to launder $3 million and complained that his fingers hurt from all the typing.
Puzyreva responded, “Lot of money? We will get rich.”
The Russia-Ukraine war began Feb. 24, 2022, with a full-scale invasion by the Kremlin that was condemned by the vast majority of U.N. member states.
In the Justice Department statement Monday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco alluded to the upcoming anniversary of the “unlawful invasion” and said the U.S. will pursue “those who supply the Russian war machine with critical U.S. technology.”
Some of the components shipped by Puzyreva and Goltsev were “of the highest concern due to their critical role in the production of advanced Russian precision-guided weapons systems, Russia’s lack of domestic production, and limited global manufacturers,” a Commerce Department statement in November said.
Puzyreva’s sentencing date hasn’t been set.
