PHOENIX — Oleg Patsulya was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit international money laundering and conspiracy to export items from the United States without a license in violation of the Export Control Reform Act.
Patsulya admitted to orchestrating a scheme using a shell company in Turkey to get around American sanctions on selling parts to Russia after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Patsulya worked to export aviation technology to Russia and launder money. The Department of Justice said Patsulya’s co-conspirator, Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin, was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in December.
Patsulya and Besedin admitted to closing a deal with an American company in Arizona for parts, telling the company the parts were going to Turkey when in fact they were being illegally sent to Russia. Patsulya’s company received at least $4.5 million from Russian airline companies through Turkish bank accounts.
ABC15 was the only news crew in the courtroom as three of Patsulya’s children delivered messages to the judge on how loving their father is, deliveries Judge Dominc Lanza described as perhaps the most eloquent he’d heard in his courtroom.
“It is one of the first cases the US Attorney's office has prosecuted for violations of the sanctions against Russia,” Patsulya’s attorney Josh Kolsrud told ABC15. “That's why the US Attorney's office threw the book at Mr. Patsulya because they wanted to make an example out of him. Luckily that didn’t happen and we got a great sentence in the case.”
Patsulya himself then delivered a message of remorse in Russian, translated by an interpreter. In his message Patsulya said he came to America to make his and his family’s life better, searching for the American dream. He admitted to betraying both the country and his family with his actions and said he would be ashamed for the remainder of his life.
Kolsrud said Patsulya is expected to be placed directly into removal proceedings after serving his time in prison and he’ll likely be deported either to Ukraine or Russia, leaving his children and wife, who are now American citizens, in the United States.
