MOSCOW, September 1 (RAPSI) - Former Russian executive who was in charge of nuclear enterprise Tenex pleaded guilty on Monday in the U.S. to conspiracy to commit money laundering and bribery, the FBI stated in press-release.
According to FBI, Vadim Mikerin pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland on Monday while his sentencing is scheduled on December 8, 2015.
Mikerin, the former general director of TENAM USA, which is indirectly under control of Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear corporation, was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion.
Three US nationals were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Charges were brought in connection with an alleged scheme to obtain contracts that involved shipping uranium from disassembled nuclear Russian warheads to power plants in the US. Mikerin collected about $1.7 million in bribes from the scheme, according to prosecutors.
The inquiry into the alleged scheme began in 2009 and expanded for five years, with a paid informant as a member of the investigative team.
Mikerin was arrested on October 29, 2014, on a criminal complaint alleging money laundering and an elaborate extortion scheme.