A Soviet-born businessman has been charged in Brooklyn as a Russian secret agent, accused of using his Houston-based company to smuggle sensitive technology out of JFK to military and intelligence agencies in his homeland. Click below to find out more.
Alexander Fishenko, the chief executive officer of Arc Electronics, claimed his company was manufacturing traffic lights. But federal prosecutors say the company was actually a tool in Russia’s plans to modernize its military.
Fishenko and 10 others involved in the scheme are named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.
He was arrested at George Bush International Airport before boarding a flight for a trip to Singapore and Moscow, officials said.
Three defendants are believed to be in Russia and the rest are set to be arraigned in Houston.
Fishenko, 46, is accused of illegally exporting high-tech gadgets that could be used for missile guidance systems, radar, surveillance and detonation triggers, according to court papers.
Federal prosecutors Daniel Silver and Hilary Jager said Fishenko was “acting as an agent of the Russian government.”
Fishenko did not hold the special U.S. Department of Commerce license that’s required to export microelectronics.
Fishenko was born in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan and graduated from a technical institute in St. Petersburg before coming to America in 1994. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2003, according to court papers.
The FBI intercepted documents from Russia’s domestic spying agency stating that microchips obtained from Fishenko’s company were defective and needed to be replaced.
