U.S. Conspirators Paid Over $2 Million to Influence Russian
Nuclear Energy Official and to Secure Business with State-Owned Russian Nuclear
Energy Company
A Russian official residing in Maryland pleaded guilty today
to conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with his role in
arranging over $2 million in corrupt payments to influence the awarding of
contracts with the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District
of Maryland, Deputy Inspector General John R. Hartman of the U.S. Department of
Energy-Office of Inspector General (DOE-OIG) and Assistant Director in Charge
Andrew G. McCabe of the FBI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office made the
announcement.
Vadim Mikerin, 56, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, pleaded guilty
before U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland. Sentencing is scheduled before Judge Chuang
on Dec. 8, 2015.
According to court documents, Mikerin was the president of
TENAM Corporation and a director of the Pan American Department of JSC
Techsnabexport (TENEX). TENAM, based in
Bethesda, Maryland, is a wholly-owned subsidiary and the official
representative of TENEX in the United States.
TENEX, based in Moscow, acts as the sole supplier and exporter of
Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power
companies worldwide. TENEX is a
subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation.
In connection with the scheme, Daren Condrey, 50, of
Glenwood, Maryland, pleaded guilty on June 17, 2015, to conspiring to violate
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and conspiring to commit wire fraud,
and will be sentenced on Nov. 2, 2015.
Boris Rubizhevsky, 64, of Closter, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on June
15, 2015, to conspiracy to commit money laundering and will be sentenced on
Oct. 19, 2015.
According to court documents, between 2004 and October 2014,
Mikerin conspired with Condrey, Rubizhevsky and others to transmit funds from
Maryland and elsewhere in the United States to offshore shell company bank
accounts located in Cyprus, Latvia and Switzerland. Mikerin admitted the funds were transmitted
with the intent to promote a corrupt payment scheme that violated the
FCPA. Specifically, he admitted that the
corrupt payments were made by conspirators to influence Mikerin and to secure
improper business advantages for U.S. companies that did business with
TENEX. Mikerin further admitted that he
and others used consulting agreements and code words such as “lucky figure,”
“LF,” “cake” and “remuneration” to disguise the corrupt payments.
According to court documents, over the course of the scheme,
Mikerin conspired with Condrey, Rubizhevsky and others to transfer
approximately $2,126,622 from the United States to offshore shell company bank
accounts. As part of his plea agreement,
Mikerin has agreed to the entry of a forfeiture money judgment in that amount.
The case was investigated by DOE-OIG and the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Trial
Attorneys Christopher Cestaro, Ephraim Wernick and Derek Ettinger of the
Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David I. Salem
and Michael T. Packard of the District of Maryland.
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