Alexander Posobilov, Shavkat Abdullaev and Anastasia Diatlova were this month convicted for crimes they committed in 2008 and 2012, related to the unlawful export of microelectronics shipped to Russia. These included such things as analog-to-digital converters, static random access memory chips, micro-controllers and microprocessors. These particular ones were used by the military and intelligence functions and their value was somewhere around $30 million.
What the FSB did in all of this was phony up a letter saying the parts were faulty and had to be replaced. the Justice Department says this:
"... The investigation uncovered a letter sent by a specialized electronics laboratory of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s primary domestic intelligence agency, to an Arc customer regarding certain microchips obtained for the FSB by Arc. The letter stated that the microchips were faulty and demanded that the defendants supply replacement parts."
I wonder how often a company would fall for this type of letter. Goods are sent to another country after their quality controls are finished. We know they were good when shipped. The customer, located in another country, says they don't work on his end. Do we send more to ensure our business reputation? Do we even notice who sent the letter and where they are? Apparently, this one was paying attention.
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