AUSTIN, Texas – An Armenian national made his initial appearance in federal court in Austin after being indicted and extradited on charges connected to an alleged export control conspiracy.
According to court documents, from February 2022 until at least August 2024, Kamo Kirakosyan and others allegedly participated in a conspiracy to export goods, including items used in semiconductor manufacturing, from the United States to the Russian Federation through Armenia without the required license or authorization from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security. Kirakosyan and his co-conspirators are also alleged to have violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by conducting transactions with entities on the Specially Designated Nationals list without licenses from the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The indictment states that Kirakosyan became the straw purchaser of U.S.-origin goods shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, when additional sanctions and restrictions were imposed. In May 2022, he allegedly instructed a co-conspirator on opening a bank account in Armenia to evade sanctions. While arranging shipments to Russia, Kirakosyan allegedly misrepresented himself as the Armenian buyer and withheld truthful end-user information despite repeated requests from U.S. companies.
Kirakosyan is charged with one count of conspiracy to violate federal law, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of attempted violation of the Export Control Reform Act, one count of attempted smuggling, one count of violating the Export Control Reform Act, and one count of smuggling.
He was initially charged in a criminal complaint on or about July 31, 2024, extradited to the United States on Aug. 29, 2025, and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Howell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
The FBI and the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce are investigating, with assistance from the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Berlin. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs assisted in securing the extradition.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Roomberg is prosecuting the case with assistance from Trial Attorney Emma Ellenrieder of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
