When the news broke that Russia had begun a full invasion of Ukraine at the start of last year, the Haas F1 team cut all of their ties with the nation.
Title sponsor Uralkali were quickly stripped of their involvement with the team and Russian driver Nikita Mazepin also lost his seat, leading to Kevin Magnussen being re-signed by the team at short notice.
NewsHour have now shockingly learned that Haas Automation may still be secretly involved with Russia, breaking the sanctions that have been in place since Russia first invaded Ukraine back in 2014.
RATEP are a Russian company why supply guidance systems for anti-aircraft weapons to the Russian military and it has now been learned that RATEP make these systems using equipment made by Haas Automation.
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According to documents filed with the US Treasury and the Department of Commerce late last month, Haas Automations have breached American sanctions as RATEP is one of several sanctioned enterprises in the Russian arms industry.
Haas Automations have been supplying RATEP with precision machining tools that they make in California, something which has caught Denys Hutyk, Economic Security Council of Ukraine by surprise.
“We were surprised that, even now, one year after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Haas Automation is continuing its direct shipments to Russia,” said Hutyk.
Haas vice president Peter Zierhut has denied that Haas Automations are involved with Russia, claiming that all ties were cut back in March of last year, a week after the invasion began.
“Haas no longer supplies machines, replacement parts or anything else to any companies in Russia. Statements to the contrary are false,” he said.
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Despite this statement, Newshour have reviewed customs records to find that Haas Automotive directly supplied Russia with $2.8m worth of shipments from March until October last year.
The ESCU have claimed that they spent months combing through Russian databases and customs records to verify Haas’ involvement, giving the recent reports strong backing.
Ukraine have said that they hope a penalty to Haas will serve as a warning to others that are supplying Russia but it is yet to be seen whether the US government will investigate one of its own leading suppliers of manufacturing technology.