US arrests laser tech salesman for illegal exports to Russia

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -A former salesman for a manufacturer of laser welding machines was arrested on Monday on charges that he conspired to evade U.S. export control laws in order to sell his company's products to a division of the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom.

Sam Bhambhani was charged in an indictment with working with a Russian citizen who resold laser equipment to the Russian government. It alleges they used falsified export documents to conceal the true end-user of the machines from the U.S. government.

Bhambhani, a resident of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, was released on a personal recognizance bond after pleading not guilty to conspiracy and smuggling charges during a court hearing in Boston. A defense lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the indictment, Bhambhani was employed as a salesman for a global supplier of laser equipment used for welding, marking, cutting, deep engraving and motion systems with facilities in Rhode Island and Florida.

The equipment was sold from 2015 to 2021 to a subsidiary of Rosatom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, that produced components for nuclear munitions and various civilian goods, according to the indictment.

Charging documents allege that Bhambhani at times discussed with the alleged reseller, a Russian citizen named Maxim Teslenko, the need to find ways to get around U.S. export controls to make sales possible.

"Also, we will have to figure out the shipment and invoicing as now there are too many controls put on export to Russia. "Politics!," he wrote to Teslenko in 2020, according to the indictment.

The U.S. government has restricted the ability of companies to export items that Russia could use in its defense, aerospace, and maritime industries even further following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Teslenko also was charged in the indictment. He resides in Moscow and was not in U.S. custody, according to court records. A defense lawyer could not be identified.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot)