A 12-count indictment was unsealed Tuesday charging Natalya Ivanovna Mazulina, of Federal Way, Washington, also known as Natasha Mazulina, for her alleged involvement in a scheme to circumvent U.S. export laws and sanctions on Russia.
Mazulina, the Western regional manager of a freight forwarding company based in Jamaica, New York, which operated out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington State, was arrested Tuesday in Seattle and will be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.
“The defendant exploited her knowledge of the export business to falsify documents and circumvent U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping oil and gas products to Russian customers,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the National Security Division. “American companies like the freight forwarder where Mazulina worked play a critical role in the global supply chain and movement of goods. The National Security Division will not tolerate individuals who seek to abuse their positions in these companies for financial gain at the expense of national security.”
“We’ve been clear and consistent that we want to help freight forwarders comply with our rules,” said Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). “But, as today’s arrest underscores, we’ve also been clear and consistent about what happens when they don’t.”
As alleged, Mazulina used her position as a freight forwarding company manager to facilitate unlawful exports to Russia through JFK airport, said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York.
“The defendant in this case allegedly helped Russia obtain such valuable items as industrial oil and gas equipment in violation of export laws and sanctions,” added Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch.
As alleged in the indictment, from at least December 2022 through December 2024, Mazulina conspired with Russian freight forwarding companies and others to unlawfully ship controlled items, including industrial oil and gas equipment, from the United States to Russia through intermediary countries.
At one point in June 2023, Mazulina told colleagues that her clients were paying through bank accounts in third-party countries because “[m]ost of [her] clients [were] currently sanctioned with USA.”
Mazulina attempted to conceal the unlawful scheme by submitting and causing the submission of false export documents to the U.S. government, documents which should have revealed that the exported goods were destined for Russia.
Mazulina is charged with conspiracy to export controlled goods to Russia without a licence, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to commit money laundering, exporting controlled goods to Russia without a license, filing false export documents with the U.S. government, and smuggling goods contrary to U.S. law.
If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of conspiring to export or exporting controlled goods to Russia without a license; a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiring to commit money laundering; up to 10 years in prison for each count of smuggling; and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of conspiracy and filing false export documents with the U.S. government.
