Illinois woman sentenced for illegally shipping military gear to Russia

LOS ANGELES (CN) — An Illinois woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison Monday following her conviction in 2022 for illegally shipping military equipment, including night-vision goggles and thermal riflescopes, to Russia.

Elena Shifrin, 62, participated in the export of more than 60 defense articles from the U.S. to Russia without obtaining a valid license from the State Department or other approval for such exports, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

She pleaded guilty in February 2022 to one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act. Her plea agreement and the prosecution's sentencing memorandum were filed under seal.

Shifrin was born in Belarus and came to the U.S. via Israel. Her brother, Vladimir Gohman, was also indicted in the scheme and is considered a fugitive. According to Shifrin's sentencing filings, her brother still resides in Belarus.

Her attorneys had asked for a sentence of time served, citing among other things her cooperation with the government. The lawyers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on her sentence.

If Shifrin had been cooperating with the prosecution, that would explain the long delay between her guilty plea and her sentencing. Earlier this year, the Justice Department without further explanation dropped the charges against one of her accused collaborators, also from Illinois, who had been the sole defendant in the case scheduled to go on trial.

Last year, Igor Panchernikov, a dual Israeli and Ukrainian citizen and a former U.S. Air Force reservist, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for his part in the scheme.

Shifrin, her brother and Panchernikov were among five people charged in 2021 by federal prosecutors with purchasing dozens of thermal imaging devices — which can cost between $5,000 and $10,000 and are controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations — from sellers across the U.S. and sending them to Russia.

During a four-year scheme, which predated Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the conspirators acquired the controlled devices using aliases and falsely assured the sellers that they would not export them. The thermal imaging devices were then surreptitiously shipped to co-conspirators in Russia using aliases and false addresses.

In order to hide her illegal activities, Shifrin put fictitious sender names and addresses on the packages containing the military gear, falsely identified the items in the packages as non-export-controlled items such as clothing, and concealed the riflescopes and other equipment in items such as toolkits and kitchen appliances.

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