MOSCOW, July 6 (RAPSI) – Sevinj Taghiyeva was sentenced last week in a criminal case over illegal export of microelectronic components for use by Russia's military, she left the United States, Sarita Kedia, Taghiyeva’s lawyer, told RAPSI on Wednesday.
“Taghiyeva was sentenced to time served. She voluntary self-deported from the United States last week,” according to Kedia.
In October 2012, FBI made public the fact that eight people had been arrested on charges of unlawfully exporting high technologies to Russia for needs of the Russian military and special services. Four employees of Arc Electronics, a private Houston-based company, were arrested alongside the company’s co-owner Alexander Fishenko.
The firm took part in transactions aimed to purchase electronic components from US manufacturers and consequently sell these components to Russian firms. As the case material show, the customer of Fishenko’s company was Apex System having connections to a number of Russian enterprises.
There are a total of 11 defendants in the case, three of them have been placed on the wanted list. Four of the eight arrested - Viktoria Klebanova, Alexander Fishenko, Alexander Posobilov and Anastasia Dyatlova - have U.S. and Russian passports. According to newspaper Huston Chronicle, Taghiyeva has entered the USA on a student visa to study at the University of Huston.
Fishenko pleaded guilty to the entire indictment in September of 2015. In particular, he agreed in his guilty plea that he violated United States law by selling electronic components to Russia without required licenses. He also pleaded guilty to ancillary money laundering, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and being an unregistered foreign agent.
Fishenko’s defense asked him to be sentenced to a prison term not exceeding 50 months (about 4 years), whereas the prosecution demands Fishenko to be sentenced to at least 121 months (about 10 years) in prison.