July 14, 2021- 12:15 p.m.
The firm is linked to a Russian company, Intertech Instruments, sanctioned by the Biden administration for its alleged role in allegedly supplying Russia’s weapons of mass destruction programs.
Warrants unsealed in federal court allege that officials at Intertech Corporation, a firm founded by Matthew Grodowski in 1990, “intentionally falsified shipping documents, avoided and circumvented export compliance regulations, and obfuscated end-users” as they sent scientific instruments to recipients in Russia. Moscow’s domestic intelligence and security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), was reportedly among the recipients of Intertech’s shipments, according to a search warrant application.
It’s unclear what specific goods federal agents believe Intertech shipped to Russia but previous export restrictions placed on an alleged Russian subsidiary point to concerns over diversion to the Russian government’s chemical and biological weapons programs.
In March 2021, the Commerce Department added Intertech Instruments to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s entity list, which restricts exports from companies at risk of supplying nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, alongside nine Russian, three German, and one Swiss firm, because of their “proliferation activities in support of Russia’s weapons of mass destruction programs.” The department also included the 27th Scientific Center of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which the U.S. has alleged is “involved with Russian chemical weapons research and testing activities,” in its enforcement action.
The move came two days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Treasury Department announced sanctions on “senior Russian government officials and a Russian state research institute for their involvement in the poisoning of [Alexei] Navalny,” a Russian dissident and anti-corruption activist currently imprisoned in Russia for what are widely criticized as politically motivated charges.
In September 2018, FBI and Commerce Department officials sent Intertech a letter informing the company that it would need a license to ship laboratory equipment to Intertech Instruments in Moscow because of the risk that scientific equipment sent there could be diverted “to chemical or biological end uses.”
After the 2018 letter, federal agents allege that Intertech “changed its business practices to circumvent and evade” the new licensing and export requirements. Transcripts of phone conversations and emails between Intertech employees detailed in court documents appear to show the company setting up a separate company, Laboratory Systems & Technology, as a cutout for continued shipments to Intertech Instruments “for the purposes of circumventing the licensing requirements,” according to federal law enforcement.
The search warrants were originally filed in January 2020. The Department of Justice requested, and received two extensions to keep the court records sealed, which expired on Tuesday.
