A Montreal woman has admitted to laundering money to send US equipment to Russia for the war

A Russian-Canadian who said he enriched himself through a scheme to send millions of dollars in electronics to Russia for its war in Ukraine could instead face up to 20 years in prison, federal authorities say.

Kristina Puzyreva of Montreal pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the Justice Department said. He was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to violate US sanctions.

“The defendant was a necessary player in a scheme to evade export controls and sanctions,” Brooklyn federal attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “If the accused had not laundered the proceeds, the export scheme would not have worked.”

Puzyreva, along with her husband Nikolay Goltsev and New York resident Salimjon Nasriddinov, supplied $7 million worth of dual-use electronic components to the Russian military, prosecutors said.

Goltsev and Nasriddinov have also been charged in connection with the scheme, which began in 2022, and face prosecution, the Justice Department said Monday.

The components were later found in helicopters, missiles, tanks and other Russian weapons and signals intelligence equipment used in Ukraine, according to a DOJ statement in November.

The three defendants worked with contacts at electronics companies that supplied components to the Russian military and created multiple accounts Avoiding sanctions and ship parts used in drones, guided missile systems and other weapons, according to US investigators.

They received orders from Russian entities and then used two Brooklyn-based front companies to illegally buy American electronic parts for the Russian military for several years.

Puzyreva and Goltsev were directly linked to 298 shipments of restricted technology worth $7 million over a two-year period, the DOJ said in a statement on Monday.

Puzyreva made the transactions through Simatech Group, a Montreal electronics firm that bought dual-use technology, electronics and mechanical parts for civilian and military use, prosecutors said.

They then shipped the parts through intermediaries in Turkey, Hong Kong, India, China and the United Arab Emirates to be routed to Russia, according to the Justice Department.

They also made several trips to New York to meet with Nasriddinov, and during those trips, Puzyreva used various bank accounts that showed large, structured cash deposits transferred to the couple's Canadian accounts, the DOJ said.

Authorities seized about $1.7 million in connection with the export scheme, including $20,000 in cash from the Manhattan hotel room where the couple were arrested in late October, the Justice Department said.

In a January 2023 text message Goltsev, released by the Justice Department, said he asked his wife to create 80 accounts to launder $3 million and complained that her fingers hurt from all the typing.

Puzyreva replied: “A lot of money?” We will be rich,” he answered.

The Russia-Ukraine war began on February 24, 2022, with a full-scale Kremlin invasion condemned by the vast majority of UN member states.

In a Justice Department statement Monday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco pointed to the upcoming anniversary of the “illegal invasion” and said the US would pursue “those who provide the Russian war machine with critical US technology.”

Some of the components supplied by Puzyreva and Goltsev were “of greatest concern due to Russia's significant role in the production of advanced weapons systems, Russia's lack of domestic production and limited global manufacturers,” the Commerce Department said in a November statement. said.

No date has been set for Puzyreva's sentencing.