Gal Haimovich, a 49-year-old Israeli national, has been sentenced to two years in prison for conspiring to illegally export aircraft parts and avionics from the United States to Russia. The sentence includes three years of supervised release and a forfeiture payment of $2,024,435.44.
Haimovich admitted to deceiving U.S. companies about the true destination of goods and concealing the scheme with false information in export documents filed with the U.S. government. He owned an international freight forwarding company that facilitated illegal exports to Russia between March 2022 and May 2023.
The court documents reveal that Haimovich's operations involved exporting items with missile technology applications through the Southern District of Florida to third-party transhippers for Russian customers. These customers instructed him to mislead U.S.-based manufacturers about the goods' final destination.
From April 2022 to April 2023, following additional U.S. restrictions on exports to Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, Haimovich arranged over 160 shipments through intermediaries in the Maldives and United Arab Emirates destined for Russia. In one instance, he falsely claimed an air data module was headed for the Maldives when it was intended for S7 Airlines in Russia.
During this period, Haimovich billed Russian clients more than two million dollars for these illicit exports. He agreed to a forfeiture money judgment and relinquished various aircraft parts as part of his plea agreement.
The case was announced by Sue Bai from the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Kevin J. Kurland from the Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement; Hayden P. O’Byrne, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; and Kevin Vorndran from the FBI's Counterintelligence Division.
The investigation was conducted by BIS and FBI agents. The prosecution team included Trial Attorney Christopher M. Rigali from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Browne for the Southern District of Florida, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Paster handling asset forfeiture.