A 58-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to more than two years in prison for exporting an air navigation and flight control system from Oregon to Russia through his home country of India.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut issued a two and a half year sentence to Sanjay Kaushik.
“It was a calculated, profit-driven scheme involving repeated transactions, substantial gains, and coordination with foreign co-conspirators, including sanctioned Russian entities,” Oregon U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford said in a statement.
Kaushik illegally obtained the aerospace technology from an Oregon-based supplier and sent it to Russia starting in early September 2023. The products were bought under the false pretense that they would be supplied to Kaushik and his Indian company, Arezo Aviation Services Limited, for use in a civilian helicopter, when in fact they were destined for Russians, according to prosecutors.
The navigation system required a federal license to export to certain countries, including Russia.
After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed new license requirements on exports to Russia.
In response, Russian procurement agents have sought out people and companies in countries that have more favorable trade relations with the United States, such as India, the United Arab Emirates and certain European countries, to procure technology on their behalf, according to agent Matthew Peterson, of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. Peterson works in the department’s Office of Export Enforcement in Portland.
Kaushik’s arrest came as part of a federal investigation into an alleged conspiracy involving Kaushik, a citizen of India and managing partner of Arezo Aviation Services Limited known as AREZO, Markus Kaltenegger, a citizen of Austria and owner of the Austrian company Yoracraft, and others to procure export-controlled aerospace technology on behalf of Russia in violation of U.S. smuggling laws, according to Peterson.
Kaushik was arrested in Miami, Florida, in mid-October 2024.
He pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to sell export-controlled aviation components with dual civilian and military applications to users in Russia.
No federal charges have been filed against Kaltenegger, records show. It’s unclear if he’s been arrested in the case or not.
Defense lawyer Per C. Olson said when Kaushik provided the Northrup Grumman LCR-100 Gyrocompass Attitude Heading Reference System to Russians, he did not provide anything to the country that they didn’t already have.
Olson unsuccessfully sought a sentence of time served for the year and three months his client has already spent in custody, arguing the average and the median sentence imposed on similarly-situated defendants convicted of the same crime is a year.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Nyhus said Kaushik and Kaltenegger bought more than $1.7 million in aviation components on behalf of a Russian procurement agent and sought a three year and one month sentence.
Kaushik worked with others “to routinely exploit his position in India and take advantage of India’s favored status to circumvent U.S. national security and export controls – the effect of which directly or indirectly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Nyhus wrote in a sentencing memo.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security investigated the case, with help from Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.