Belarusian Woman Sentenced in Washington to 12 Months and a Day for Illegally Exporting U.S. Aircraft Parts to Russia
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice announced on October 28 that Yana Leonova, also known as Yana Liavonava, a 34-year-old Belarusian citizen most recently residing in Russia, was sentenced that day in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 12 months and one day in federal prison for unlawfully exporting numerous avionics and other aircraft equipment from the United States to Russia. Judge Loren L. AliKhan also ordered that Leonova be deported to Belarus after she completes her prison sentence.
Leonova had pleaded guilty on May 20 before Judge AliKhan to violating the Export Control Reform Act. According to court documents and her admissions at the plea hearing, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Leonova and her co-conspirators in the United States and Armenia procured aircraft components from U.S.-based distributors and exported them to Russia via Armenia, shipping dozens of components and moving millions of dollars in payments.
The items were for use on private jets and other aircraft operated or maintained by Leonova's former employer, a company placed on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List for engaging in or enabling activities contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. Using companies in Armenia, the conspirators re-exported the components to Russia without the licences required by the Department of Commerce, a route designed to conceal that U.S.-origin parts were bound for Russia and to evade export controls.
Leonova was extradited from France to the United States in November 2025. The case was investigated by the FBI's Kansas City field office and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement, in Atlanta and New York. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said Leonova had used shell companies, false documentation, foreign intermediaries and overseas bank accounts to conceal the exports and evade sanctions, but that investigators followed the evidence across jurisdictions and brought her to justice.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的 E. Barrett Prettyman 联邦法院大楼，本案在此审理（资料照片）。CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, where the case was heard (file photo). CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
