Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.
Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.
They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.
The racketeering scheme was conducted “with the consent of higher level officials” in Russia who “shared the proceeds” from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later.
Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefiting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions. ...”
A New Jersey businessman was sentenced to a year and one day in prison for Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in connection with his role in arranging corrupt payments to influence the awarding of contracts with the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation.
The sentence was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Schenning for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Angela Sigler of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General (DOE-OIG); and Assistant Director in Charge Andrew G. Vale of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Boris Rubizhevsky, 67, of Closter, New Jersey was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang to 12 months and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The defendant was also ordered to forfeit $26,500. Rubizhevsky pleaded guilty on June 15, 2015, to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to court documents, Rubizhevsky acted as an intermediary in connection with corrupt payments to co-conspirator Vadim Mikerin, the former director of the Pan American Department of JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide.
According to court documents, between October 2011 and February 2013, Rubizhevsky and Mikerin agreed to conceal corrupt payments being made from the United States to overseas bank accounts for the benefit of Mikerin, including a payment to a foreign bank account located in Latvia. Rubizhevsky admitted that the conspirators used sham consulting agreements to disguise the corrupt payments.
Mikerin previously admitted that he conspired with Rubizhevsky and others to transmit more than $2 million from Maryland, and elsewhere in the United States, to offshore shell company bank accounts located in Cyprus, Latvia and Switzerland with the intent to promote violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Mikerin pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in August 2015, and was sentenced in December 2015 to 48 months in prison for his role in the money laundering scheme.
The DOE-OIG and FBI investigated the case. Assistant Chiefs Christopher Cestaro and Ephraim Wernick and Trial Attorney Derek Ettinger of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David I. Salem and Michael T. Packard of the District of Maryland prosecuted the case.
Obama: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”
Medvedev: “I understand.”