Italian arms dealer sentenced for routing U.S. ammunition to Russia

Italian national Manfred Gruber was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison for helping divert more than $540,000 in U.S.-made ammunition to Russia through Italy and Kyrgyzstan, the Justice Department said.

U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez imposed the sentence in federal court in Brooklyn. Gruber pleaded guilty March 30 to conspiracy to commit export-control violations.

DOJ said Gruber was the director of sales for “Italian Company-1,” a large wholesale distributor of firearms and ammunition, and a key participant in an international procurement network supplying Russia during its war against Ukraine.

According to prosecutors, U.S. export licenses allowed suppliers in Nebraska and Tennessee to ship ammunition to the Italian consignee but required the products to remain in Italy. Gruber instead reexported the ammunition to Kyrgyzstan without obtaining the required U.S. authorization, using another Italian company as a cutout in at least part of the scheme.

Most of the ammunition was subsequently reexported from Kyrgyzstan to Russia, DOJ said. The department described the ammunition as military-grade and said Gruber’s conduct supported Russia’s war effort.

Prosecutors said Gruber knew additional licenses were required and took steps to conceal the shipments’ true destination. In a September 2023 encrypted exchange, Gruber and a co-conspirator discussed dividing a shipment of 100,000 rounds so it would “go unnoticed” by the FBI.

The case also involved Kyrgyzstan-based arms dealer Sergei Zharnovnikov, who pleaded guilty to violating export controls by sending U.S.-made firearms and ammunition to Russia. He was sentenced in January to 39 months in prison. Prosecutors said a contract recovered from Zharnovnikov’s phone showed that he had agreed to supply a Russian company with ammunition manufactured by one of the U.S. suppliers.

Although DOJ did not identify “Italian Company-1,” public records tie Gruber to Bignami S.p.A. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he has worked for the company for 34 years. Neither the company nor other associated individuals were charged in the DOJ announcement.

The case is United States v. Gruber, No. 26-CR-61, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice and courtroom report.