PITTSBURGH-
A former nuclear engineer accused of helping a former Russian official steal more than $9 million earmarked for improving the safety of that country’s Chernobyl-style reactors pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax evasion.
Mark M. Kaushansky, of Monroeville, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and eight tax evasion counts. Like former Russian nuclear energy minister Yevgeny Adamov, he also has been charged with additional conspiracy counts and money laundering, but Kaushansky’s attorney, Fred Thieman, said he expected those charges to be dropped at sentencing.
Asked by the judge why he was pleading guilty, Kaushansky said, “I just decided to admit that some tax-related irregularities were made.”
Kaushansky had a business partnership with Adamov, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin fired in 2001. Prosecutors allege the defendants stole $9 million from the U.S., other countries and corporations by setting up corporations in the U.S. to funnel money to themselves that was intended to improve Russia’s nuclear safety.
U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said in a statement that the indictment alleges Adamov was primarily responsible for diverting the money, but that Kaushansky “was most directly involved with the concealment and expenditure of those funds.”
U.S. prosecutors wanted to try Adamov here, but Russian officials said he should face trial in his home country. He has denied the charges against him and awaits trial in Russia.
Kaushansky, who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1979, was working as a researcher at Westinghouse Electric Corp. and as a translator when he met Adamov, according to the indictment.
Kaushansky’s sentencing hearing was scheduled for Feb. 5, but is expected to take several days because both sides will present evidence about the amount of income for which he tried to evade taxes. Prosecutors say the counts involve income of more than $5 million, but Thieman said it is a fraction of that figure.
In 1986, a shattered reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant spewed radiation across much of Europe, contaminated 77,220 square miles and forced the Soviet government to permanently evacuate more than 300,000 people. Dozens died within months, and the U.N. health agency estimated last year that the ultimate death toll from Chernobyl-related cancers will be more than 9,000.
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