“I fear you don’t know me … I fear that you have this image of me as some kind of a secret agent.”
Those were the pleading words written to a New York Judge by Alexander Fishenko before he was sentence to 10 years in prison for acting as a Russian agent on Thursday local time.
The 50-year-old Texas CEO pleaded guilty to crimes including secretly supplying Russia with sophisticated electronic weapons systems.
“I love this country!” he wrote. “The absolute furthest thing from my mind was being a spy for Russia.”
But despite his assurances, the judge saw little choice but to put him behind bars for a possible decade.
Born in Kazakhstan, Fishenko owned the Houston-based electronics store Arc Electronics Inc.
According to prosecutors he led a scheme to dupe companies including Texas Instruments, Xilinx and Toshiba to sell it sensitive electronic components which he later siphoned to the Russian government.
He evaded strict export controls for microelectronics commonly used in missile guidance systems, detonation triggers and radar systems.
Prosecutors say his company shipped about $US50 million worth of technologies to Russia between 2002 and 2012.
In September he pleaded guilty to charges that included conspiracy, acting as an unregistered agent of the Russian government and illegal export of microelectronics.
The case had a very Cold War feel to it but Fishenko said he never meant to hurt his beloved adopted country.
“Yes, I committed crimes, but I never, ever did so with the intention of hurting this country,” he told the court.
In addition to supplying Russian officials with various electronic military equipment, he also helped the Russian military get a type of radar installed in the nose of a fighter jet to allow it to aim its weapons system at multiple targets.
“These are all items that the Russian military were desperate to procure,” the prosecution said.
Five other people have also pleaded guilty. Another three were convicted and three are at large.
This article was originally published on news.com.au
