A Ukraine-hating war profiteer who helped sell weapons equipment to Russia talked herself into a harsher prison sentence Wednesday — by telling a Brooklyn judge she was her husband’s unwitting dupe, even though her text messages suggested she knew exactly what she was doing.
Kristina Puzyreva, 34, got two years in prison for her role in the multimillion-dollar scheme, which involved sending components used in unnamed aerial vehicles, guided missile systems and other weapons to sanctioned entities in Russia.
Brooklyn Federal Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said she was inclined to give Puzyreva a different sentence, particularly in light of the hellish conditions at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where she’s been locked up for the past nine months.
Puzyreva was assaulted in the jail, then placed in solitary confinement for a month while MDC staff sorted out that she was victim, not attacker.
But she canceled out any MDC discount coming her way in her rambling statement to the judge.
“When I committed this crime, I knew my husband had an illegal business … I never knew that these electronic components would go to weapons,” she said. “I trusted my husband, but he never mentioned to me that it would go somewhere to hurt someone.”
She added, “I hate myself that I let myself be part of that.”
She said she merely opened the bank accounts her husband used in the scheme to help him avoid taxes.
“I believe that was a patent lie,” DeArcy Hall said, pointing to a text exchange between her and her husband where they discussed how a package with “not a pretty part” in it was intercepted by customs officials.
Puzyreva, a Russian-Canadian citizen, pleaded guilty in February to money laundering conspiracy. Her hubby, Nikolay Goltsev, who also took a plea, will be sentenced in December.
They worked with a third conspirator, Salimdzhon Nasriddinov, who has also pleaded guilty, and others, to smuggle about $7 million worth of U.S.-origin “dual-use” electronics to Russia between August 2022 and September 2023.
They used two Brooklyn companies, SH Brothers Inc. and SN Electronics Inc., then shipped the electronics through intermediaries in Turkey, Hong Kong, India, China and the United Arab Emirates in order to get them to Russia.
“Some of the electronic components and integrated circuits with the same make, model and part number shipped by the co-defendants through SH Brothers have been found in seized Russian weapons platforms and signals intelligence equipment in Ukraine,” the feds wrote in a July 8 sentencing memo.
Prosecutors described Puzyreva as the “linchpin” of the operation, taking on the minor but critical role of controlling the bank accounts they used to receive their profits from the scheme.
Puzyreva also lamented the pace of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in text messages to her husband and co-conspirator last May, after a drone attack on Moscow, according to court filings.
“What is Putin waiting for. He needs to destroy Ukraine,” she wrote to her husband, then continued, “He needs to put fear into them. Those losers. … I hate [ethnic slur for Ukrainians] anyway.”
Puzyreva told the judge that she left Russia at age 17 and never wants to return, and that she’s half-Ukrainian and doesn’t hate Ukraine. She said she expressed support for Ukraine on social media, but became angry when she saw remarks cheering the death of Russian civilians.
“Although we believe the sentence was excessive considering her limited role in the conspiracy, we understand and accept the absolute horror of the war being waged against Ukraine,” her lawyer, Jeff Chabrowe, said Wednesday.
Chabrowe argued that she was manipulated by her husband, who told her when she could go out and who could be her friends, and he repeatedly made that point in court, but DeArcy Hall said he presented no evidence that she was manipulated into the crime.
“I don’t think this is a winning argument for you,” the judge said. “I do think there are better ones. You should move on.”
