Virginia Forwarder, Executives Charged in Tech Transshipment Scheme

A Virginia freight forwarding firm and two executives have been charged with operating a technology transshipment service for Russian customers, routing shipments through Turkie, Finland and Kazakhstan to evade export controls.

Eleview International Inc., Oleg Nayandin, 54, of Fairfax, Virginia, and Vitaliy Borisenko, 39, of Vienna, Virginia, made their initial appearance in the Eastern District of Virginia pursuant to a now unsealed complaint charging them with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act.

“This company allegedly used not one, not two, but three different schemes to illegally transship sensitive American technology to Russia,” said Assistant Secretary for the Department of Commerce Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Matthew S. Axelrod. “Today’s charges, against both the company and two top executives, are a prime example of our work to bring to justice both the companies and the corporate executives alleged to have circumvented our rules in search of a fatter bottom line.”

According to the complaint, between approximately March 2022 and June 2023, Eleview International Inc. (Eleview), a Virginia-based company that operated a freight consolidation and forwarding business; Nayandin, the owner, president, and CEO of Eleview; and Borisenko, who oversaw the day-to-day operations of Eleview’s freight forwarding business, allegedly conspired to illegally export goods and technology from the United States to Russia by transshipping them through three countries bordering or near Russia.

As alleged, the defendants operated an e-commerce website that allowed Russian customers to order U.S. goods and technology directly from U.S. retailers, who shipped the items to Eleview’s warehouse in Chantilly. The defendants then allegedly consolidated the packages before shipping them to the Russian customers, often using other freight forwarders as intermediaries, in exchange for a fee.

After the Department of Commerce imposed stricter export controls in response to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the defendants allegedly began shipping items to purported end users in Turkey, Finland, and Kazakhstan, knowing that the items were ultimately destined for end users in Russia. To facilitate these illegal exports, the defendants allegedly made numerous false statements to the Department of Commerce and other freight forwarders about the end users and ultimate consignees of the items in these shipments.

As part of the conspiracy, the defendants allegedly engaged in three export-control evasion schemes, each specific to a different intermediary country.

In the Turkey scheme, the defendants allegedly exported about $1.48 million worth of telecommunications equipment to a false end user in Turkey, knowing that the equipment was intended for a Russian telecommunications company that supplied the Russian government, including the Federal Security Service, or FSB. The telecommunications equipment that the defendants allegedly exported illegally as part of the Turkey scheme had military applications, including use by the Russian military to create and expand communication networks in its war effort against Ukraine.

In the Finland scheme, the defendants allegedly exported about $3.45 million worth of goods purchased to Russia through Eleview’s e-commerce website to a false end user in Finland that neither purchased nor sold goods. Before consolidating the packages into larger pallets for shipment to Finland, the defendants allegedly affixed to each package a label with a Russian postal service tracking number so that the Russian postal service could easily ship the package to the customer in Russia.

The goods that the defendants allegedly exported illegally as part of the Finland scheme included “high priority” items that the Department of Commerce has identified as particularly significant to Russian weaponry, including the same type of electronic component found on Russian “suicide” drones used to destroy Ukrainian tanks and jets.

In the Kazakhstan scheme, the defendants allegedly exported about $1.47 million worth of goods to Russia through an entity in Kazakhstan that advertises its ability to deliver goods to Russia. The goods that the defendants allegedly exported illegally as part of the Kazakhstan scheme included controlled, dual-use items.

If convicted, Nayandin and Borisenko face up to 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.