U.S. Department of State Announces Reward Offer for Information Leading to the Arrest and/or Conviction of Russian National Accused of Sanctions Evasion

Today, the State Department is announcing a reward offer under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) of up to $7 million for Russian national Artem Aleksandrovich Uss, for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction for conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in transnational organized crime.  This announcement follows the October 19, 2022, announcement of a 12-count criminal indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York against Uss and six other co-defendants.  Uss was charged with four counts: 1) conspiracy to defraud a department or agency of the United States; 2) conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA); 3) conspiracy to commit bank fraud; and 4) conspiracy to commit money laundering for the oil smuggling and IEEPA scheme.

Uss allegedly orchestrated a transnational fraud, smuggling, and money laundering operation in part through Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (NDA GmbH), a privately held industrial equipment and commodity trading company located in Hamburg, Germany.  As owners of NDA GmbH, Uss and another co-conspirator reportedly engaged in a variety of activities in violation of U.S. criminal laws and U.S. and other sanctions, including:  1) the unlawful export of millions of U.S. dollars in military and sensitive dual-use technologies from the United States to Russia; and 2) the use of the U.S. financial system to facilitate the smuggling of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela.

This reward offer reinforces a whole of government effort to protect the U.S. financial system and to disrupt transnational organized crime globally.  Any information regarding these reward offers should be directed to the FBI by email at [email protected].

For more information on the individuals listed, please visit the TOCRP page at state.gov