"Oleg Vladislavovich Nikitin, general director of KS Engineering (KSE), a St. Petersburg, Russia-based energy company, pled guilty in US District Court to conspiracy to evade US export regulations and to defraud the United States," the Justice Department said in a statement citing Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia David Estes.
The US Justice Department said Nikitin, KSE business partner Anton Cheremukhin as well two Italian nationals and an American conspired to purchase a US-made power turbine worth $17.3 million in lieu of trade regulations. The turbine was to be employed on a Russian Arctic deep water drilling platform, the statement said.
Nikitin faces a sentence of up to five years in prison and a substantial financial penalty, the statement added.