Maxim Marchenko, 52, of Russia was found guilty of procuring dual-use, military grade OLED micro-displays for end users with connections to the Russian military. Marchenko was charged in September 2023 with various money laundering and smuggling offenses, which he pleaded guilty to in February 2024.
A former Hong Kong resident, he and other Russian co-conspirators used several Hong Kong-based shell companies to obfuscate an illicit procurement network that moved military-grade microelectronics out of the U.S. and into Russian hands.
The technology that Marchenko fraudulently obtained for his Russian contacts has several military applications for things such as night vision goggles, thermal optics, and other weapon systems.
“The transshipment of military-grade microelectronics through Hong Kong to Russia helps fuel the engine of Russia’s war machine,” said Matthew S. Axelrod, Bureau of Industry and Security Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement. “Today’s sentencing is just the latest example of our unceasing efforts to target and disrupt illegal Russian procurement networks.”
Authorities said that the U.S.-based distributors were misled in their dealings with Marchenko and did not know of his intentions to deliver their technology to end users with connections to the Russian military.
Instead, they were told that the components would be delivered to clients outside of Russia and would instead be configured for electron microscopes used in medical research.
His Hong Kong-based shell companies also served to conceal the payments he received from his Russian clients, payments which totaled more than US$1.6 million between May 2022 and August 2023, according to the DOJ.
Following his three-year sentence, Marchenko will face three additional years of supervised release.