Man Sentenced in Scheme to Export U.S. Military-Grade Radios to Russian Govt
A dual citizen of Hungary and Spain has been sentenced to more than two and a half years in federal prison for attempting to illegally send American-made military communications equipment to Russia—another example of the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement of export and national security laws.
Bence Horvath, 47, who had been living in the United Arab Emirates, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 31 months in prison for conspiring to export U.S.-made radio communications technology to Russian end users without the required license.
According to court documents, Horvath began discussing the acquisition of restricted radio equipment with a small U.S. distributor in early 2023. He worked for months to purchase and ship the items to Russia via a freight forwarder in Latvia, acquiring 200 military-grade radios as part of the scheme.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted the shipment before it reached its destination. The Justice Department said the operation was investigated jointly by the Commerce Department’s Office of Export Enforcement, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and Homeland Security Investigations.
U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates also ordered Horvath to pay a $5,000 fine and serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. Upon completion of his sentence, Horvath will be deported, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced.
Pirro, who has led a series of high-profile federal prosecutions since assuming her post as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, also drew attention Thursday for her remarks at a local community meeting highlighting the success of President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.
Pirro reported that violent crime in Washington, D.C. has dropped dramatically since Trump’s order deploying additional federal resources to high-crime neighborhoods.
“No one can deny that crime has gone down,” Pirro told attendees. “There is a deterrent effect. People are not as willing to shoot, carjack, or stab. And by the way, do you know what’s up? Stabbings, because we’re taking the guns away.”
Federal data show that homicides have fallen by 53%, robberies by 59%, and overall violent crime by roughly 40% since the surge began.
Despite the clear results, local activists and progressive city leaders have criticized the continued presence of federal agents in D.C. neighborhoods, some of whom have worn masks to avoid retaliation.
“It’s like we’re walking in two different cities,” said resident Athena Viscusi. “She’s seeing some city of lawless people that need to be yanked off the streets, and I see a city of people who are trying to go about their lives.”
The community forum coincided with President Trump’s new executive order reinstating the federal death penalty, reversing the Biden-era moratorium. The directive instructs prosecutors to pursue capital punishment “to the maximum extent practicable” in cases involving murder, terrorism, or the killing of police officers.
“If you kill somebody, or if you kill a police officer, you should know what the punishment is,” Trump said from the Oval Office signing ceremony.
Pirro defended both the surge and the administration’s renewed focus on deterrence, saying the results speak for themselves.
“My job is to protect. My job is to prosecute. My job is to support those guys,” Pirro said of the federal officers deployed under the Trump order. “If you’d prefer they not be here, then you’re going to be dealing with the juveniles who are out of control.”
Pirro also confirmed she is collaborating with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Congress on new legislation that would allow prosecutors to charge more violent juvenile offenders as adults — part of what she called a “broader effort to restore law and order in America’s cities.”