Man admits role in $2 million scheme to send aerospace parts to Russia

Andrei Samuilovski, 32, a citizen of Estonia, Switzerland, and Russia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally export U.S.-origin aviation and aerospace parts to Russia in violation of U.S. sanctions, according to court documents.

Samuilovski entered his plea before Judge Carl J. Nichols on a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 13, 2027, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.

Court documents state that beginning in early 2022 and continuing through September 2024, Samuilovski and others conspired to supply prohibited Russian end users with aerospace-related components without obtaining the required licenses from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). BIS regulates the export of U.S.-origin technologies, including aerospace parts and other items controlled for reasons of national security, regional stability, and counterterrorism, officials said. A BIS license was required to export the aerospace commodities to Russia.

Samuilovski co-founded ITC Middle East FZ-LLC, known as ITC, which was officially established in March 2022—about four weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prosecutors said. The invasion led to expanded Russian export restrictions and sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and other countries.

Between ITC’s founding and September 2024, dozens of shipments from various U.S. companies were sent to ITC, along with other shipments of U.S.-origin goods, according to court documents. The exported and reexported items consisted primarily of export-controlled aerospace-related commodities with a cumulative value of nearly $2 million, prosecutors said. Those items were ultimately reexported to Russia.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia, and FBI Counterintelligence and Espionage Division Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky.

The FBI and BIS conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Wasserman for the District of Columbia, along with Deputy Chief Sean Heiden and Trial Attorney Brett Ruff of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, are prosecuting the case.