Virgil Flaviu Georgescu, a Dual U.S.-Romanian Citizen,
Agreed to Provide Military-Grade Weapons to be Used to Shoot Down American
Aircraft in Colombia
Virgil Flaviu Georgescu, 43, was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for conspiring to sell large quantities of military-grade weaponry to
the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a designated foreign
terrorist organization, to be used to kill Americans in Colombia. Georgescu was sentenced today in Manhattan
federal court by U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams.
The announcement was made by Acting Assistant Attorney
General for National Security Mary B. McCord and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
for the Southern District of New York.
“Virgil Flaviu Georgescu was convicted by a unanimous jury
of conspiring to sell the FARC military weapons, including anti-aircraft
cannons and rocket propelled grenades, to be used against American personnel
and aircraft,” said U.S. Attorney Bharara.
“Having sought to profit from the murder of U.S. officers abroad,
Georgescu will now spend years in a U.S. prison.”
According to the allegations in the Indictment, other
documents publicly filed in Manhattan federal court, and the evidence
introduced at trial:
Between May 2014 and December 2014, Georgescu, a
Romania-based weapons broker, conspired with his co-defendants, a former
Romanian government official and a former member of the Italian Parliament, to
sell an arsenal of weapons, including machine guns and anti-aircraft cannons,
to the FARC, with the understanding that the FARC would use the weapons against
United States personnel in Colombia.
During a series of recorded telephone calls and in-person meetings, Georgescu
and his co-conspirators agreed to sell the weapons to three confidential
sources (CSs), who represented that they were acquiring these weapons for the
FARC but were, in fact, working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Georgescu and his co-conspirators agreed to
provide these weapons to the CSs with the specific understanding that the
weapons would be used to kill Americans and, in particular, to shoot down
American helicopters and airplanes.
Georgescu first spoke with a CS in May 2014. Thereafter, Georgescu recruited both of his
co-conspirators to help obtain the weapons for the CSs, with the understanding
that the former Romanian government official would provide weapons expertise
and the former Italian member of Parliament would help secure fraudulent
end-user certificates, in order to make the illegal sale of weapons look
legitimate. Georgescu instructed his
co-conspirators and others involved in the deal to use encrypted applications
when communicating about the weapons deal to avoid detection by U.S.
authorities.
Over the course of five consensually-recorded meetings with
the CSs in Romania and Montenegro, Georgescu and his co-conspirators provided
the CSs with catalogues of weapons that included anti-aircraft cannons, rocket
propelled and thermobaric grenades and other high-powered weapons, as well as
military-grade optical equipment. During
these meetings, the CSs explained that the arms would be used to kill Americans
and Georgescu offered his thoughts on what weapons would best suit the FARC’s
needs.
Between September 2014 and December 2014, Georgescu and his
co-conspirators traveled to Romania, Montenegro, Italy, Germany, Albania,
Poland and Bulgaria to advance the weapons deal. During this period, the co-conspirators met with
weapons suppliers, obtained sample fraudulent end-user certificates and
test-fired military-grade rifles. In
December 2014, Georgescu and his co-conspirators secured a signed contract from
a European weapons supplier to provide more than $17 million dollars’ worth of
weapons to a straw purchaser. After
obtaining the signed contract, Georgescu and one of his co-conspirators
secretly altered the document in order to increase the conspirators’ personal
profits from the weapons sale. On Dec.
15, 2014, Georgescu met with the CSs, showed them the contract and discussed
means of payment and transportation of the weapons to Colombia.
*
* *
Georgescu was arrested by Montenegrin authorities on the
charges in the indictment on Dec. 15, 2014, and extradited to the United States
on Feb. 25, 2015. On May 25, following a
10-day jury trial in Manhattan federal court before Judge Abrams, Georgescu was
convicted of one count of conspiracy to kill United States officers or employees
and one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a
designated foreign terrorist organization.
In addition to the prison term, Georgescu was sentenced to three years
of supervised release.
Acting Assistant Attorney General McCord and U.S Attorney
Bharara praised the outstanding investigative efforts of the DEA’s Special
Operations Division’s Bilateral Investigations Unit, the DEA’s Bucharest
Country Office, the DEA’s Rome Country Office, the Montenegrin National Police,
and the Romanian Authorities. U.S
Attorney Bharara also thanked the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of
Justice’s National Security Division and the Department of Justice’s Office of
International Affairs.
This prosecution is being handled by the office’s Terrorism
and International Narcotics Unit.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrea Surratt and Ilan Graff are in charge of
the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorneys Josh Parecki and Benita
Corlett of the Counterterrorism Section.
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