Russian Nuclear-Energy Official Pleads Guilty in Uranium Bribery Case

[bananas]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/nuclear-energy-official-pleads-guilty-in-russian-uranium-sales-bribery-case-1441058147

Nuclear-Energy Official Pleads Guilty in Russian Uranium Sales Bribery Case

Vadim Mikerin scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8

By Maria Armental
Aug. 31, 2015 5:55 p.m. ET

A Russian nuclear-energy official pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to conspiracy to commit money laundering for arranging more than $2 million in bribes to help U.S. companies do business with the Russian state-owned nuclear-energy corporation.

Vadim Mikerin, 56 years old, of Chevy Chase, Md., is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8.

As president of Tenam Corp. and director of the Pan American Department of JSC Techsnabexport (Tenex), Mr. Mikerin oversaw Russian uranium sales to the U.S.

<snip>

Boris Rubizhevsky, 64, of Closter, N.J., and Daren Condrey, 50, of Glenwood, Md., pleaded guilty in June in connection to the probe.

<snip>

[bananas]

1. the company expects to control 40% of the global uranium market by 2030.

http://www.menafn.com/1094324994/Russian-nuclear-exec-pleads-guilty-to-arranging-2-million-in-bribes

Russian nuclear exec pleads guilty to arranging $2 million in bribes
MENAFN - FxPro - 01/09/2015

<snip>

For a period of more than 10 years beginning in 2004, Mikerin and two co-conspirators allegedly plotted to send funds from accounts in Maryland to shell accounts in Cyprus, Latvia and Switzerland through October, 2014. Mikerin admitted the corrupt payments were made to secure improper advantages for companies that conducted business with Tenex.

Last November, Mikerin was placed under arrest for allegedly accepting bribes of more than 1.6 million in exchange for arranging contracts involving the transport of radioactive material from Russia to the U.S. in excess of 33 million. At the time, U.S. investigators accused Mikerin of conspiring with Daren Condrey of Transport Logistics in Fulton, Md. to deliver uranium to the U.S. companies on a non-competitive basis. Mikerin later admitted to transferring more than 2.1 million to the shell accounts located outside the U.S.

<snip>

Mikerin faces a maximum of five years in jail and a fine of 250,000 for the conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced at a hearing in U.S. District Court in early-December. As part of the plea agreement, Mikerin also agreed to repay the illegal kickback of 2.1 million that he allegedly received through the course of the scheme.

In July, the general director of Tenex told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the company expects to control 40% of the global uranium market by 2030.

[bananas]

2. Megatons to megabucks

http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2015-08-russian-official-plead-guilty-us-court-graft-cooperative-nuclear-weapons-destruction-program

Russian official to plead guilty in US court over graft in cooperative nuclear weapons destruction program

Vadim Mikerin, a former executive with the Russian state nuclear fuel conglomerate Tenex has agreed to plead guilty in the US to money laundering and bribery charges in connection to a cooperative disarmament deal between Washington and Moscow, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Published on August 20, 2015 by Charles Digges

<snip>

Between 1993 and 2013, Russia down blended 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium for sale to and use in US commercial reactors under the HEU-LEU, or Megatons to Megawatts program.

By the program’s end in December 2013, Megatons to Megawatts had disposed of enough highly enriched uranium to build 20,008 warheads, according to the US Enrichment Corporation, which was Tenex’s American partner in the agreement.

Uranium sold to the US via the program provided some 10 percent of electricity generated in America during the program’s duration.

Megatons to alleged megabucks

According to court documents, Mikerin allegedly supervised the sale and shipment of the uranium sent to the US under the program via a network of bribes and kickbacks to officials at Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

<snip>

[kristopher]

3. And bribery in the construction of a nuclear plant in Brazil

15 were arrested in this instance in Brazil.

Brazil charges ex-CEO of nuclear power company with taking bribes

(Reuters) - The former chief executive of Brazil's nuclear power company was formally charged on Tuesday with accepting bribes in a corruption scheme to loot federal utility Eletrobras by the same kind of overbilling and bribery that occurred at state-run oil company Petrobras.

Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva, the former CEO, took bribes totaling 4.5 million reais ($1.22 million) from construction and engineering firms Andrade Gutierrez and Engevix, according to charges presented by prosecutors and published in a court document.

Pinheiro, in jail since July 28, resigned in early August as the head of Eletronuclear, the nuclear power subsidiary of Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, the state-run utility holding company known as Eletrobras.

....

Pinheiro, a retired admiral in Brazil's Navy, is considered a father of Brazil's nuclear industry and was deeply involved in a now aborted attempt to build a nuclear bomb and ongoing plans to build a fleet of nuclear attack submarines

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/09/01/brazil-corruption-eletronuclear-idUKL1N1171KW20150901