Alaska Man, Washington Man Charged With Illicitly Exporting Luxury Goods to Russia
Sergey Nefedov of Anchorage and Mark Shumovich of Bellevue, Washington, were charged June 11 with conducting a scheme to illegally export nearly $500,000 worth of snowmobilers and associated parts from the U.S. to Russia, DOJ announced.
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The Russian-born pair specifically face charges of conspiring to illicitly export goods from the U.S., false electronic export information activities, smuggling, unlawful export without a license and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. Nefedov was also charged with money laundering and "making a false statement in violation of the Export Control Reform Act," DOJ said.
From at least March 2022 to May 2023, Nefedov and Shumovich allegedly worked with businesspeople in Russia and Hong Kong to skirt U.S. export laws on sending luxury goods to Russia by shipping the goods through a Hong Kong-based intermediary company, DOJ said. An unnamed Russian national who owned a company selling snowmobiles in Russia allegedly contracted with a Russian national doing business in Hong Kong to ship nearly $1 million worth of goods from Hong Kong to Russia.
The first businessperson allegedly created invoices for the Hong Kong-based person's company to buy snowmobiles "and other motorsport vehicles" from Nefedov's firm, Absolut Auto Sales, DOJ said. The first businessperson allegedly told a freight forwarder that he needed goods to "transit in a third country" from the U.S. since shipments to Russia were stopped.
Nefedov and Shumovich then got quotes from U.S.-based distributors to buy and export the vehicles, DOJ alleged. Nefedov sent the quotes to the first unnamed businessperson, who approved them and told Nefedov what questions to ask the U.S. distributors and freight forwarders. The unnamed businessperson then allegedly sent funds to the Hong Kong person's company, which then sent the funds to Nefedov's firm. This money was used to buy the snowmobiles, DOJ said. Nefedov and Shumovich allegedly told the distributors and freight forwarders that the vehicles were meant for Hong Kong.