Man Charged With Trying to Smuggle Cessnas to Russia

The Department of Justice on Monday arrested a dual U.S.-Russian citizen in Georgia on charges related to an alleged attempt to smuggle two Cessna aircraft to Russia.

Sergey Nechaev was charged with attempting to export controlled goods without a license in violation of the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling goods contrary to U.S. law, and causing the submission of false and misleading information in Electronic Export Information paperwork submitted through the Automated Export System, the DOJ said in a news release.

If convicted on all charges, Nechaev faces a maximum penalty of 35 years in prison. The aircraft, worth a total of approximately $170,000, have been seized by the federal government and are subject to forfeiture as property involved in the commission of a crime, the DOJ said.

The DOJ said that according to the indictment, between March 3 and March 24 in 2023, Nechaev tried to smuggle a 1968 Cessna 172K and a 1973 Cessna from the United States to Russia through Armenia.

After the U.S. imposed strict sanctions on Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Nechaev attempted to export the aircraft to a purported Russian flight school, without the required license or authorization from the Department of Commerce.

"To conceal the true end user and destination of the aircraft, Nechaev falsely represented that the end user and destination were in Armenia," the DOJ said in the news release.

The DOJ said the investigation was coordinated through Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement group that has been enforcing sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.

The DOJ said the Department of Commerce's Office of Export Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations unit, Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Aviation Administration are part of the investigation.

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