'A little secret': why the trial of Russian Tishchenko was postponed in the USA

Preparation for the trial in the case of Russian Oleg Tishchenko, accused of smuggling out of the United States instructions for operating military aircraft, went at full speed.

Фото: Depositphotos

The trial of the 42-year-old video game developer who was detained at the beginning of the year in Georgia and extradited to the US was originally scheduled for this Monday, but has now been postponed until August 19 to give the parties time to exchange pre-trial motions Air force.

The first round of this exchange began on May 6, when the defense, provided free of charge to Tishchenko by the federal court of the state of Utah, demanded that two of the five points be excluded from the indictment. According to Russian lawyers, they are not clearly spelled out, which makes their task more difficult.

This week, the prosecution submitted its response to the court, in which it rejects the arguments of the defense and insists that these points remain in the main indictment document, approved by the grand jury back in 2016 year, but initially classified.

Criminal collusion

Tishchenko is accused of criminal conspiracy against the United States, violation of export laws and smuggling. His accomplice, 60-year-old Texas resident Kenneth Edward Sullivan, is no longer mentioned by name in court documents.

The American was arrested in 2016, and in October 2017, the court appointed him one and a half years of public supervision. After this period, the case against him was closed.

Photo: Oleg Tishchenko's page in VKontakte

According to the 17-page indictment, 22 June 2011, Tishchenko appealed to other visitors to the DCS (Digital Combat Simulator) forum.

“Need help with sending goods from eBay,” he wrote, referring to the most famous online auction.

Tishchenko explained that he would try to acquire a series of instructions for the operation and maintenance of modifications A and B of American F-16 (Fighting Falcon) fighters, which are for sale on eBay.

The Russian explained that he needed help in obtaining these instructions, which sending abroad is complicated by export restrictions.

Since the seller of the goods will not send them abroad, Tishchenko allegedly wrote, he needs another forum user to receive instructions to his American address and send them to Moscow.

The next day, such a person showed up, identified himself as Mobi’s nickname, and volunteered to receive instructions to the fighters in order to send them to Russia.

On the subject: An American living in Russia ordered a cleaning agent and sat down to smuggle drugs

Illegal operations

The investigation, which was conducted by the US Department of Homeland Security, was not difficult to calculate that a Texan Sullivan was hiding behind Mobi.

Having requested information from eBay, the investigators found that from 1 in January 2012 to 17 in September 2015, Tishchenko allegedly regularly sold at the specified auction instructions to F-16 fighters recorded on disks.

Buyers were located in countries such as Holland, Japan, Cyprus, Australia, Germany and Taiwan.

Between 23 and 27 on June 2011, different visitors to the same forum warned Tishchenko and Sullivan that the operation they were trying to look illegal and recommended that they search Google for information about US export restrictions on military goods (ITAR).

Similar warnings were posted on the site by auction.

October 25 2011, Sullivan posted a message on the forum stating that he had sent instructions to Tishchenko to Moscow, and joked: "I hope that if you notice me, you can send me a hacksaw."

Proven scheme

Further events unfolded according to a scheme worked out long ago by the American special services.

23 March 2016, the investigators sent Tishchenko to his colleague, who contacted a Russian on the same forum and offered him instructions for American military aircraft.

The next day, Tishchenko responded and asked him to contact him directly via Skype. From that day on, they corresponded regularly.

25 March 2011, Tishchenko told an American that he had been collecting aircraft instructions for a long time and would like to receive instructions for the F-16C fighter and the A-10 attack aircraft (Warthog).

He explained that he needed to understand how this all works in order to apply it in a digital flight simulator that his Moscow company, Eagle Dynamics, is developing.

The firm stated that it had nothing to do with Tishchenko’s operations with American instructions.

"A little secret material"

26 March 2016, Tishchenko sent an American a list of 26 instructions he would like to receive.

Although he had previously assured a disguised investigator that he was not trying to get instructions for newer F-35 and F-22 aircraft, since they were “too secret”, he now requested them.

Фото: Depositphotos

“I can guarantee,” he assured the American, “that these instructions will not be provided to any third parties and, perhaps, will not even be shown to anyone in our company (Eagle Dynamics).”

As prosecutors said Monday in their response to the defense's motion, the above text makes it clear that the defendant "continues to request more and more information and asks for secret documents, knowing that they cannot be sent to him in Russia."

The prosecution cites the following phrase from Tishchenko’s message dated 29 of March 2016: “Honestly, I’m a little worried about you, since you’re going to send me some“ slightly secret ”materials. Be careful!".

According to prosecutors, this phrase once again demonstrates the “expectations and intentions” of the accused.

As is usual in such operations, the American agent invited him to meet in Prague. “Yes, that’s an option,” Tishchenko answered him. “I have a Schengen visa for a year.”

The meeting for some reason did not take place, and so the Russian remained at large for more than two and a half years. Tishchenko is reported to have gone to Georgia for the salsa festival.

If he refuses to deal with the prosecutor's office, dares to wait for the trial and loses it, he faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a million dollars in fines.

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