Wisconsin man gets a year in prison for smuggling lab equipment to Russian companies

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man accused of smuggling lab equipment to Russian companies in violation of trade sanctions will spend the next year in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge William Conley sentenced 68-year-old Andrew Pogosyan on Tuesday to a year and a day and fined him $10,000.

Federal prosecutors charged Pogosyan, a Russian-born U.S. citizen who lives in Madison, in June with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and three counts of smuggling.

According to prosecutors, Pogosyan started using his company, Omega Diagnostics LLC, in September 2022 to ship lab equipment to Russian companies, including one that performed chemical research for the Russian military.

The U.S. Department of Commerce imposed sanctions in February 2022 on exports to Russia in response to the Ukranian invasion. The sanctions require exporters to obtain licenses to ship technology and goods to Russia, particularly products that could help Russia produce chemical and biological weapons.

Pogosyan didn't obtain a license and tried to hide the exports' destination by sending the equipment to third-party countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Latvia and Lithuania, prosecutors said. The products were then forwarded on to the Russian companies.

Pogosyan pleaded guilty in July to all four counts. He had faced up to 35 years in prison.

His attorney, William Coffield, said in an email Wednesday that Pogosyan is a good man who didn't understand the ramifications of his actions, and that Conley recognized there was no evidence that the lab equipment was used for anything other than medical and environmental research.