The former proprietor of a Buffalo Grove drilling-equipment corporate allegedly exported rifle barrels and different gun portions to the Ukraine in opposition to U.S. regulation over a three-year length.
Glen Stepul, 33, previously of Wheeling, concealed the gun portions in shipments declared as “household goods,” “cosmetics,” “toys,” “stationary,” and “cassettes,” in step with an indictment by way of the U.S. Attorney’s administrative center for the Northern District of Illinois.
The feds additionally charged Ukrainian resident Andriy Yakin, 38, within the scheme to export pistol slides, gun barrels, scopes and night-vision cameras from the United States to Ukraine between 2014 and 2016, in step with the indictment.
Some of the exports had been allegedly hidden in shipments of drilling kit despatched to Ukraine, the fees state. One of the shipments used to be intercepted by way of customs officers in Lviv, Ukraine, in September 2014, prosecutors stated.
Stepul, recently of Miami Beach, Florida, pleaded no longer to blame Thursday to a fees of violating the Arms Export Control Act and different export-control, smuggling and false commentary fees. He is anticipated to seem in courtroom once more Dec. 16.
Yakin, believed to be within the Ukraine, has a warrant issued for his arrest.