TOPEKA — A Kansas businessman faces up to 25 years in prison after conspiring to sell and export aviation-related equipment to Russia, a scheme that allegedly began in 2020 and continued through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sixty-year-old Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, the owner and president of KanRus Trading Company Inc., pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal criminal charges. He’s accused of conspiring to commit crimes against the U.S. and conspiring to illegally launder money.
His sentencing hearing is set for March 21. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Rask and Ryan Huschka for the District of Kansas, along with a national security division trial attorney, are prosecuting the case.
“Buyanovsky admitted to a long-running scheme to smuggle sophisticated U.S. avionics equipment to Russia, doubling down to hide his actions after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to cut off Moscow from the means to fuel its military and hold those enabling it accountable in a court of law.”
Buyanovsky forfeited more than $450,000 worth of avionics equipment and accessories to the government, including a pallet of devices detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He also turned over personal assets estimated to be worth about $50,000.
In his guilty plea, Buyanovsky said from 2020 to March of this year, when he was arrested, he had worked to smuggle U.S. avionic equipment to those in Russia and Russians in other foreign countries. To do so, he and fellow conspirators either didn’t file required export forms, or filed false export forms in some cases, lying about export values, users and final destinations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Former KanRus vice president Douglas Robertson, a 56-year-old Olathe resident, was part of the scheme, Buyanovsky said.
The two, along with others, continued to purchase and export equipment for Russian clients after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, despite tightened U.S. export measures. They did so, prosecutors allege, by shipping products through intermediary companies based in Armenia, United Arab Emirates and Cyprus and using foreign bank accounts to funnel money from Russian customers to the U.S.-based KanRus company.
Investigation into the years-long scheme was conducted by an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing sanctions and export controls set after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
The ongoing task force is still combating “efforts to evade or undermine the collective actions taken by the U.S. government in response to Russian military aggression.”
“After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. government imposed export controls and sanctions to prevent the weaponization of U.S. manufactured technology against Ukraine in a conflict intended to usurp its right to sovereignty within its borders,” said Kate Brubacher, attorney for the District of Kansas. “As long as there are people who value greed and profit over freedom and justice, the U.S. Department of Justice will remain vigilant and investigate and prosecute these crimes.”
