Russian 10 faces years in prison in the United States for purchasing aircraft instructions on eBay

In the US, judged the Russian developer of computer games Oleg Tishchenko. Over the years, 15 has developed high-precision flight simulators and, for better immersion in the subject, bought documentation for various aircraft. For the purchase of several such instructions against the Russians filed a criminal case - in particular, Tishchenko is accused of conspiring against the United States. He faces more 10 years in prison.

Photo: Oleg Tishchenko's page in VKontakte

42-year-old Muscovite Oleg Tishchenko - "airplane geek", told "Medusa»Two of his friends and former colleagues. Particularly fascinated Tishchenko details of the work of military aircraft. Muscovite made his hobby a profession - he studied at the faculty of control systems, computer science and power engineering of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), and from 2004 he worked as a developer at Eagle Dynamics.

Eagle Dynamics is a company established in Russia in 1991. It develops computer games - high-precision flight simulators that simulate the control of both Russian aircraft, such as SU and MiG, as well as foreign ones. The main product of the company is the popular series of digital flight simulator simulators. The company's headquarters is now in Switzerland.

According to former colleagues Tishchenko, he was one of the best developers in the company. In order to “expand his knowledge,” he constantly bought service instructions for various planes via the Internet. One of his former colleagues Tishchenko says that sometimes he spent all his free money on it and was forced to borrow from other Eagle Dynamics employees.

In 2011, Tishchenko bought instructions on eBay for the operation of the American F-16 fighter

From the accusations against Oleg Tishchenko, it follows that 22 of June 2011 of the year he posted on the forum of fans of Digital Combat Simulator a message asking him to help him with another purchase on eBay - this time instructions for pilots and manuals for the American F-16 Fighting Falcon. Tishchenko explained to users that the seller could send the goods to the buyer only within the United States and asked someone to send instructions to Russia.

Medusa was able to find an archive copy of this discussion. It follows from it that the American users warned Tishchenko that the transfer of such papers could be prosecuted. But he rejected all their objections, saying that he had already bought such instructions on eBay many times and there were no problems. He also pointed out that more than 16 years have passed since the publication of these manuals to the F-20 and they are no longer used in practice.

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Oleg Tishchenko pointed out that he works at Eagle Dynamics, and said that he needed instructions that contained the details of the fighter’s work in order to “understand how everything works” and to use this knowledge when developing a simulator (Eagle Dynamics really plans to release the F-16 simulator ).

As a result, one of the users under the nickname Moby agreed to the Tishchenko proposal and sent the purchase to Moscow. The mediator was 60-year-old Texas resident Kenneth Edward Sullivan.

At the forum he wrote: “If they arrest me, can you send me a hacksaw?”

In 2016, five years after the purchase, Tishchenko was sued

The indictment was drawn up in absentia. Oleg Tischenko was immediately accused of five counts, including conspiracy against the United States, an attempt to smuggle, and a violation of legislation to control the export of arms. The materials sent by Tishchenko were found to be related to the country's defense capability, and such documents can be exported or transferred abroad only to persons who have the appropriate state license. At the same time, licenses are not issued if exports “are not aimed at promoting peace and security throughout the world” and are not carried out in the interests of the United States. The export of such materials to Russia is completely forbidden, as well as to Belarus, North Korea, Iran and countries in respect of which the arms embargo is imposed by the United States.

In March, 2016, the investigation received new materials on the case. Then a special agent of the US Department of Homeland Security contacted Tishchenko at the forum, posing as a potential trader in US aircraft documentation. This time, according to the indictment, Tishchenko wanted to buy instructions for A-10, F-35 and F-22 jets.

He also explained the desire to buy these instructions with the desire to develop the most reliable aircraft simulator as possible - and said that the Russian company could not get them from the American government. Tishchenko also noted that apart from him, none of the developers would likely see these papers.

Moreover, the prosecution says that he did not keep the purchased instructions, but resold them to users from other countries. In 2016, eBay warned Russians that its lots are “legally doubtful”. In this case, the site is still sold instructions for combat aircraft.

Tishchenko detained in Georgia and extradited to the USA

The developer’s acquaintances told Medusa that there were no difficulties in Russia because of the accusations of Oleg Tishchenko. Tishchenko was detained in Georgia at the request of the American authorities, and several months later, at the beginning of 2019, he was extradited to the United States by a court decision (Russia does not have a similar agreement on extradition with the United States). In Georgia, a programmer from Moscow went to the salsa festival - Tishchenko, in addition to airplanes, is seriously interested in dancing.

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In March, 2019-th Tishchenko officially charged, he did not admit his guilt. The Russian was arrested; he is in Weber County jail in Utah (according to KUTV, this may be due to the fact that F-16 fighters are based at the US Air Force base Hill, which is located in this state). In court, Tishchenko defends the state lawyer by appointment - he has already demanded to withdraw two of the five points of the prosecution, indicating that the undercover agent and Tishchenko have not yet agreed on a transaction on documentation.

Friends and colleagues of Tishchenko explained to Medusa that relatives cannot help the Russian citizen. Mother Tishchenko died, he does not communicate with his father. Oleg Tischenko is not married, he has no girlfriend. Nothing is known about help from the Russian Foreign Ministry either. The developer’s brother, Aleksey, told Medusa that he was in touch with his brother and hoped that an employer could help him.

“But I'm not sure that you can pull it out,” he says.

Eagle Dynamics, where Tishchenko had been working for 15 for years, stated in his official comments that he “acted privately and in his personal interests” - the information obtained by the developer from the documentation was not used in the company. In this case, Eagle Dynamics conducted an internal investigation and "did not find anything that would have to do with the charges" against Tishchenko. In particular, the company claims that Tishchenko did not take part in the development of the F-16 control simulator at all, and the computers did not store any documents prohibited for export from the United States.

Before the district court in Salt Lake City, Oleg Tishchenko will appear on August 19. He faces more 10 years in prison. All charges against his American mediator, Kenneth Edward Sullivan, were dropped by the prosecutor after he made an agreement with the court. The conditions on which the charges were dropped are unknown.

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