Texas Man Who Acted As Russian Agent Gets 10 Years' Prison (go.com) 87
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: A Texas man who acted as a secret agent for the Russian government and illegally exported cutting-edge military technology to Russia has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Alexander Fishenko learned his punishment Thursday in federal court in New York. He pleaded guilty in September to crimes including acting as a Russian agent. The 50-year-old Fishenko is a U.S. and Russian citizen. He owned Houston-based Arc Electronics Inc. Prosecutors say he led a scheme that evaded strict export controls for micro-electronics commonly used in missile guidance systems, detonation triggers and radar systems. Prosecutors say his company shipped about $50 million worth of technologies to Russia between 2002 and 2012. In other Russian-related news, a Russian government-owned news site Sputnik has reported that the Kremlin is building a nuclear space bomber that should be flight-ready by 2020.
in soviet russia we bomb you! (Score:2)
in soviet russia we bomb you!
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Actually, the surname is Ukrainian, so not obvious. Swing and a miss.
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There's the Russian troll. Always trying to deflect blame from Russia.
"It's Ukraine's fault Russia invaded them. Had they not wanted the freedom of the West rather than the oppression of Russia this wouldn't have happened."
"It's Ukraine's fault the terrorists are receiving arms and munitions from Russia. Had they let them burn polling places, destroy ballots and attack those who wanted to vote in free and open elections this wouldn't have happened."
"It's Ukraine's fault Russia invaded and occupies Crimea.
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Shouldn't that be a "Russian Man"? A Russian stole technology for his mother country. The context is a bit different.
Actually, the title is correct. If you take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] you would see that he was nationalized to become a U.S. citizen in 2003; thus, he, at the time, was a citizen or Texas man.
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Plenty of pilots were shot at while enforcing the No-Fly zone during that period. Hell, Clinton even actively bombed Iraq in '98 to distract from his domestic performance issues. So, yes, he continued teh Gulf war for 8 years. He certainly never attempted to create a peace treaty.
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Trump seriously wants to suck V. Putin's dick he admires him so much as the personification of a strong leader not taking shit from anybody.
Trump just told Putin via the press that if Russia invades Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the USA will just sit back and act unconcerned. Nothing to see here, NATO or no NATO.
Now Trump's aides are busy backpedaling. Hohoho, that's not what he meant to say.
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Despite it being a Trumpism he's probably right even if somebody else is President. If it's a slow takeover like the Ukraine instead of a blitzkrieg that's probably exactly what will happen apart from some pointless bluffing.
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lucky trump is not in power yet as may been death by firing squid!
Trump: Squid...YOU'RE FIRED!
Squid: Bloop bloop bloop
Re: lucky trump is not in power yet as may been de (Score:1)
Rofl
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lucky trump is not in power yet as may been death by firing squid!
Paid for by Russia.
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It depends on the temperature, a bit of frozen squid would be able to puncture the skin at high enough speed.
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At this point, what difference does it make?
He didn't mean to break the law, so he shouldn't have been charged. /sarcasm
TANJ (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:TANJ (Score:4, Insightful)
And yet Hillary remains free.
See, because most people do it backwards. It's power first, then treason. Do it the wrong way 'round and you risk going to jail.
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Reagan paid Iran to keep the hostages until after the election. Reagan also violated U.S. law by selling arms to terrorists.
You're right. It's not the same. It's a clear violation of the law which was done knowingly and forethought.
Re:TANJ (Score:4, Interesting)
Reagan paid Iran to keep the hostages until after the election. Reagan also violated U.S. law by selling arms to terrorists.
Clinton got paid to arrange arms sales deals. It's exactly the same; premeditated, for profit. And to boot, she deleted evidence from her email server, and we got the information from deleted emails. So, premeditated crime, with destruction of evidence. Tell us again how HRC isn't precisely the same grade of criminal as Reagan.
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Do you have any proof that Trump did something illegal? If you do, you should hand it over to the prosecutor.
We have actual verified (by the FBI) proof that Hillary forwarded documents that were classified at the time, yet she isn't in jail because she is powerful, and a Democrat (like the president and his appointees).
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GaN transistors, Gunn diodes, RTDs?
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I'm really curious about which "micro-electronics" he could have obtained that are strictly controlled and used in misile guidance systems.
By falsely claiming to be a traffic light manufacturer, Arc Electronics duped companies including Texas Instruments Inc., Xilinx Inc. and Toshiba Corp. to sell it sensitive electronic components, some of which were funneled to the Russian military, prosecutors said.
By the sounds of it, standard run of the mill components that I can easily buy here in New Zealand, but which because of completely retarded ITAR laws in the US, are prohibited for sale to the Russian Federation. I remember having to sign an ITAR import declaration for a batch of x86 based Sun servers; something that I could build a functional equivalent of with no ITAR license from off the shelf components.
To make it sound scary and justify a 10 year jail sentence, they have to imply that the things sold a
The thing about spies is.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone uses them. The issue with trying to prosecute any spies is that your own get treated the same way and you can not say anything about it.
Sounds more like a plea deal than anything else otherwise the two countries would just switch caught spies like they normally do also outside of the public view.
Sentencing (Score:1)
Sooner or later, this will be used to kill Americans and allies. The man's action is a but-for cause of their death. He is getting off very light from that POV.
On the other hand, America's legal arms dealers are a massive industry, and they never get held responsible for how the weapons are used. So the ten years isn't for the deaths that are being caused, it's for the fact that the particular weapon is one that someone doesn't want sent overseas.
Re:Sentencing (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you serious, or just the average clueless American? There is nothing Russia can buy from any other country that they can't make themselves. In particular when it comes to weapons. You are aware they are a military super-power right? Do you really think some little-heard of electronics company got hold of a secret super weapon and sold it to the Russians, so they can use it to kill Americans? Wake up you idiot. There is obviously something else behind it, but BS accusations about spies and superweapons makes it easier to swallow for dumb Americans like yourself, and it fits the agenda.
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No, it can't. There are many high-tech components Russia cannot make because it does not have the technical knowledge nor manufacturing to do. If it did it would be building its own ships rather than paying France to do so or its own engines instead of from Ukraine.
You are aware they are a military super-power right?
No, they're not. Russia is only capable of attacking its weaker, smaller neighbors becau
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It's the Russian trolls. They inhabit boards such as these in their vain and transparent attempt to spread Putin's propaganda. Anything which lays out facts, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine or occupation of Crimea or its abuse of the Tartars, is immediately met with downmods or insults or anything else to try and sway opinions because they don't want the truth to be told.
After all, there is no word for truth in the Russian language.
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Are you serious, or just the average clueless American?
This is slashdot; what do you expect?
Re:10 years, you're kidding! (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, if you sell it.
If you give it away for free you face several lifetime convictions for treason. See: Edward Snowden.
MPAA (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank god he did not send some music tracks with that, he would have gotten 100 life sentences and a trillion dollar fine.
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He was only selling military secrets, not some movies! Gee, people, priorities!
Seems legit... (Score:2)
So, they want to kill Snowden -- or at the very least lock him away for life, and he is an American hero.
Ross Ulbricht is serving life in prison building a website to buy and sell shit that should be legal (well, most of it) anyway.
Hillary Clinton commits treason, and goes free.
But this dude, sells military secrets to the Russians, and 10 years.... yep ... seems legit to me.
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Ross Ulbricht is serving life in prison building a website to buy and sell shit that should be legal (well, most of it) anyway.
Didn't he try to have someone murdered?
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Ross Ulbricht is serving life in prison building a website to buy and sell shit that should be legal (well, most of it) anyway.
Didn't he try to have someone murdered?
If that was the case why wasn't he convicted of 1st degree murder? Honest question....
I believe in innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The charges that he was *CONVICTED* of do _NOT_ warrant a life sentence. If he had been convicted of 5 attempts at murder for hire, THAT would warrant a life sentence. You can't (well obviously you can, or he wouldn't have gotten life) sentence someone based on what you THINK they did. The sentencing should be based on the crimes they were charged and convicted o
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I remember reading about it. Seems that I was mistaken: he was charged but not yet tried.
Yeah a life sentence seems way overboard for his actual convictions.
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Treason doth not prosper ... look that quote up and you will understand.
Treason isn't even giving classified anti-tank weapons to Hezbolla less than a year after they blew up over a hundred US Marines. Treason these days is beating a Russian at chess. Treason is for nobodies. People working for the state can just wrap themselves in a flag and call working for an enemy "patriotism".
Eek (Score:1)
He's lucky that he wasn't also copying mp3s otherwise the sentence would have been much worse.
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Hello Mr Putin's Troll.
Regarding not having to steal electronics, just ask yourself:
- what percentage of Russians have PCs which have electronic components designed outside of Russia
- what percentage of people outside of Russia have PCs which have electronic components designed in Russia
What RUSVIDIAMD will beat NVIDIA and AMD in game bencharks, we can speak again.
Won't comment on winning space race - we all know what was the cost for the few victories they had.
Saves having to buy it off the Chinese (Score:2)
After all even Petraus right at the top of the tree was found guilty for selling secrets for sex.
That's harsh (Score:2)
Texas Man Who Acted As Russian Agent Gets 10 Years' Prison
When are they going to do something about the guy [imdb.com] who's been acting as an evil wizard for the last 10 years?
Texas man? (Score:2, Insightful)
I was expecting a name like Buck, or Cash. Alexander Fishenko, another immigrant whose loyalties lie elsewhere. We got lots of them now. After his prison sentence he should forfeit his property, be stripped of citizenship, and deported.
Secret Agent? (Score:5, Informative)
An electronics exporter who violates ITAR and sells electronics abroad is not a secret agent, even if he misrepresented the purchases when he acquired those electronics.
And, how did he get this stuff? By "falsely claiming to be a traffic light manufacturer." Now, think about that for a second. The traffic lights in your neighborhood have "microprocessors which are frequently used in military systems, missile-guidance systems and detonation triggers" ? Well, they may (microprocessors can be put to many uses), but that doesn't mean that the traffic lights in your neighborhood contain secret military hardware. In fact, they certainly do not.
In other words, this guy was convicted of selling export-controlled hardware, which you can buy on the open market, not militarily secret hardware, which you cannot. There is a big difference (not least in that there near no exhaustive list of what is subject to ITAR control, and at times no easy way to determine if something is or is not export restricted), but you wouldn't know it from reading this article.
Why is he not being executed for this? (Score:2)
Chelsea Manning (Score:2)
Chelsea Manning got 35 years for spying and aiding the enemy when she released to the American public the truth about the war they were in.