German company sold instruments to Russian security services proxies

According to the newspaper, Heller Tools sold drills and other tools totaling nearly $1.2 million to companies linked to the Serniya smuggling operation.

Heller Tools declared sales of $860,000 worth of goods to a Moscow-based company called Trade House Treydtuls, a company linked to the Serniya network, between the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and June 2023.

Customs records show that Heller's exports to Treydtuls ceased in June 2023, shortly after the FT contacted Heller with questions about its trade with Treydtuls.

By September, however, Heller Tools had begun selling to another Russian firm called Tireks. This company, which bought another $300,000 worth of goods from the German company, was founded in June by a man who had worked for Treydtuls.
Heller stated that it met “all legal requirements.”

Heller Tools sold sanctioned goods to Russia

The construction tools sold by Heller, such as saws and drills for steel or masonry, were included in the EU sanctions lists in December 2023, after the sale to Tireks. The tools were added because they could “in particular contribute to the increase of Russia's industrial potential”.

In 2022, the US Department of Justice indicted five people associated with Serniya for conspiring to purchase military and dual-use technologies for Russian defense companies.

Among them was suspected FSB Colonel Vadim Konoschenok, who was detained by Estonian border guards while trying to flee to Russia.

A Russian man was recently sent to prison in the United States. He was involved in smuggling dual-use microelectronics to Russia.

At the same time, even before that, it became known that US law enforcement officers had uncovered a scheme to supply parts for military equipment to Russia.