Indian Pharmaceutical Company Linked to $300M Electronics Shipment to Russia

28 October, 2024 AI servers with Nvidia chips. Photo: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg The Indian pharmaceutical company Shreya Life Sciences has been accused of exporting sanctioned electronics to Russia.

This was reported by Bloomberg. An analysis of data collected by trade tracking companies ImportGenius and NBD shows that in April-August 2024, Shreya exported 1111 units of servers manufactured by Dell Technologies to Russia. These were PowerEdge XE9680 servers optimized for AI, based on processors manufactured by Nvidia or AMD.

The specifications of 998 shipped servers confirm that they were equipped with Nvidia H100 chips.

H100, one of the most powerful artificial intelligence chips developed by Nvidia. Photo: Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg

The servers, worth £300 million, were imported by two Russian companies: Main Chain and I.S. These servers and the chips they contain are on the U.S. and European Union's list of goods banned for export to Russia.

However, this is just one of the batches of advanced technology that Shreya has sold to Russia completely legally since September 2022.

Sanctions circumvention

However, according to the investigation, the Indian company is only acting as a gasket. Trade data shows that the real source of the electronics is Malaysia. The shipping documents for at least 834 PowerEdge XE9680 units destined for Russia list Malaysia as the country of origin.

Indian import data for March-August 2024 indicated that 1,407 of the same Dell devices were imported into India from Malaysia. Supporting documents confirm that the exports to India were made from a Malaysian subsidiary of Dell International Services India Private, and another subsidiary, Dell Global BV (Singapore Branch), was listed as a supplier. The company's first non-medical export record for the period investigated by Bloomberg appeared in September 2022.

Back then, computer equipment worth £0.75 million was shipped to Russia. However, Shreya's exports to Russia spiked in April 2024, when the company increased sales of Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers at an average price of £260,000. In addition to Shreya, another company, Hayers Infotech Private Limited, also exports technology products to Russia.

It is registered at the same address in Mumbai as Shreya. On the top floor of Shreya's office, there is a separate sign with the name Hayers Infotech Pvt Ltd. Together, Shreya and Hayers Infotech have exported £434 million worth of high-tech goods to Russia since February 2022.

As a reminder, at the end of October 2024, it became known that the Turkish government had blocked the supply of Western-made goods to Russia that could be used for weapons production.