photo by: Contributed

A businessman from Lawrence has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for violating United States customs laws by selling advanced aviation technology to Russian end users, according to a news release Thursday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas.

Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, 63, of Lawrence, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering.

Buyanovsky is the former president and owner of KanRus Trading Company, a Kansas-based avionics enterprise. As part of his plea agreement, Buyanovsky consented to the forfeiture of over $450,000 worth of avionics equipment and accessories and a $50,000 personal forfeiture judgment.

After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. government tightened export controls concerning Russia, the release said. Buyanovsky and KanRus vice president Douglas Edward Robertson, 59, of Olathe, conspired to continue to purchase, sell and export sophisticated and controlled avionics equipment to customers in Russia without the required licenses from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Robertson pleaded guilty to export control and money laundering violations and was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

“Congress put trade restrictions in place to discourage Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine. The defendants ignored those laws and saw the war not as a humanitarian crisis, but as a business opportunity to boost their profits,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser.

A third defendant, Oleg Chistyakov, a/k/a Olegs Čitsjakovs, 57, of the Republic of Latvia, acted as a broker for KanRus. He was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to his part in the conspiracy.