Atkinson, N.H., Lab Pleads Guilty of Failure to File Export Information on Shipments to Russia and Ukraine

Warren B. Rudman United States Courthouse, home of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire located at 55 Pleasant Street, Concord, N.H.

An Atkinson, N.H., firm pleaded guilty in federal court to 14 felony counts of failure to file export information on shipments to Russia and Ukraine.

U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young said Monday Intertech Trading Corporation, a laboratory equipment distributor, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 17, if the court accepts the binding plea agreement. Intertech will pay the maximum allowable fine of $10,000 per count and be subject to a two-year term of corporate probation and monitoring.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2015 and 2019, Intertech exported laboratory equipment to Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere, falsely describing the nature and value of the exported items on the commercial invoices and shipping forms. In its plea agreement, Intertech admitted that it used false, innocuous descriptions such as “lamp for aquarium” or “spares for welding system,” rather than accurately identifying the sophisticated scientific equipment actually contained in the shipments.

Young’s office said, Intertech admitted it drastically undervalued the shipments, thereby evading the requirement to file Electronic Export Information, which would have been reported to the Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security.

The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, and the Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarad Hodes and Trial Attorney David Lim of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

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