Russians Charged With Smuggling Millions Of Barrels Of Venezuelan Oil To China

Five Russian nationals and two Venezuelan oil brokers allegedly laundered millions of barrels of Venezuelan crude to Beijing in a scheme to aid the Russian military, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted several individuals and corporate entities for “alleged participation in a global sanction evasion and money laundering scheme” to furnish Russia with “powerful” civil-military technologies, according to a press release. The DOJ charged the indicted persons with smuggling millions of barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil to generate illicit revenue for Russian oligarchs as well as stealing sensitive U.S. military technology for Russian military users.

Their activities represented  a “global [scheme] to violate U.S. export and sanctions laws” and an attempt “to reexport a machine system with potential application in nuclear proliferation and defense programs to Russia,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“Our investigators and prosecutors will be relentless in their efforts to identify, locate, and bring to justice those whose illegal acts undermine the rule of law and enable the Russian regime to continue its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” he added.