MOSCOW: A 36-year-old Union County man who was originally from Russia pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that he helped smuggle electronic components from the United States to Russian defense contractors for nearly 14 years.
The plea by Alexander Brazhnikov Jr. in federal court in Newark was the first public acknowledgement of 1,900 secret shipments to contractors in Russia licensed to supply Russian defense, intelligence and nuclear agencies.
Brazhnikov “significantly undermined the national security of the U.S. by procuring sophisticated, high-tech electronic components and smuggling them into Russia, thereby enhancing the capabilities of the Russian Intelligence Service, and contributing to the modernization of both the Russian Military Service and the Russian Nuclear Weapons Program,” said Richard M. Frankel, FBI Special Agent in Charge in Newark in a statement. “Now, Brazhnikov must face the consequences of his actions and the full power of U.S. jurisprudence.”
Brazhnikov, who moved to the United States from Russia when he was 22, lived in Mountainside with his wife and two children before he was arrested last June and held by federal authorities on smuggling and money laundering charges that were disclosed today.
In a yellow jumpsuit and chains, he admitted to U.S. District Judge Martini that he had run the operation, which brought in more than $65 million, with his father, Alexander Brazhnikov Sr., who remains in Moscow.
