Business and entrepreneurship play an important role in the economy of the United States. American small, medium, and large corporations have the following ratios: 97–99%, above 1%, less than 0.1% respectively (Burns, 2016). The level of employment in large corporations in the United States exceeds 50 million people. Small (and medium) businesses account for 68 million people, that is, 44% of all employees work in large corporations (Burns, 2016). Due to the fact that business activities are profitable, many people from other countries get involved into entrepreneurship in the USA. That is why law enforcement in the sphere of business is relevant; it is aimed at regulating the appropriate activities of inhabitants of the USA and people from other countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a business-related case decided in the states.
Fishenko Case
Business activities by a group of Russians that included illegal export of technologies from the United States to Russia are known as Fishenko case. In July 2016, the Federal Court issued the first verdict on it; 11 people were targeted in the investigation (Hernandez, 2016). One of them was Sevigne Taghieva who, according to media reports, came to the United States to study at the University of Houston (Hernandez, 2016). Subsequently, the punishment awarded to her was recognized as served based on the time she had spent in custody awaiting sentence. Four of the arrested (Victoria Klebanova, Alexander Posobilov, as well as Anastasia Dyatlova and Alexander Fishenko) have dual citizenship (Hernandez, 2016). Other defendants in the case were convicted to 3 to 4 years in prison. Anastasia Dyatlova who was defended by lawyers at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati insisted on being freed from charges. The reason for the investigation was a suspicion of illegal export of the technologies used by FBI and military-industrial complex to the Russian Federation.
The focus of US law enforcement was a private company ARC Electronics Inc. organized by the criminals and located in Houston. Four employees of the company and its owner Alexander Fishenko were detained. The company took part in transactions for the acquisition of microelectronics from American manufacturers and subsequent resale to its Russian companies (Hernandez, 2016). According to the case file, the customer of high-tech electronics was Apex System LLC, a business associated with a number of Russian enterprises (Hernandez, 2016). Thus, the illegal activity was performed through doing business.
Fishenko, the main person involved in the case, pleaded guilty on all counts. In particular, the man admitted that he had participated in conspiracy to commit fraud and export microelectronics to the Russian Federation in violation of the law, had been involved in money laundering and hadprevented the administration of justice. Fishenko’s interests were represented by Richard Levitt and Dean Martin Solomon from law firm Levitt & Kaizer (Hernandez, 2016). The criminal was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Furthermore, according to the decision of the court, more than 500 thousand dollars were confiscated from Fishenko in favor of the state (Hernandez, 2016). Hence, it might be concluded that the illegal activities performed by the criminals were stopped and all the participants were punished.
Impact of the Case
The above described case demonstrates that in the modern world, information and technologies belong to the most valuable goods. It should be noted that Fishenko and his partners violated the US laws on purpose to receive benefit by trading with technologies. Impact of the case on the businesses is positive because it serves as a warning for other companies who perform illegal activities. However, sometimes, a business might break regulations in unawareness; the case might influence a specific organization. Due to it, an owner of such a company might study the appropriate law and regulations more carefully. In the USA, the majority of organizations are administrated by Small Business Administration. Hence, owners of companies should be aware of their requirements and make sure their businesses meet them. Moreover, the case shows that it is possible to implement fraudulent schemes in the US. Thus, it might give the authorities an impetus for improving the law.
References
Burns, P. (2016). Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Hernandez, O. R. (2016). Export Control Violations (No. SAND2016-1323PE). Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States).