U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross | U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross has announced that Arkady Malakhov, a 52-year-old resident of New York, NY, has pleaded guilty to the charge of conversion/unlawful conveying of government money. This offense could result in a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of $100,000.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn M. Hartford provided details on the case, noting that Malakhov became the Chief Executive Officer of Solid Cell, Inc., a Rochester-based small business, in 2006. In December 2016, he submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant titled “SBIR Phase I: Integrated Thermoelectric Heat Exchanger (iTEG-HX) for Carbon Neutral Electricity Production through Recovery of Cold Energy from Regasification of LNG.” The NSF awarded Solid Cell, Inc., $225,000 in July 2017 to support this project.
In July 2017, Malakhov requested an initial payment of $100,000 from the grant funding. The NSF transferred these funds to Solid Cell's bank account under Malakhov's control. He then misused part of these funds for personal use and conveyed them to other parties for unrelated purposes. Later that month, he obtained another $100,000 from the project's grant funding and repeated this misuse.
The investigation was conducted by the National Science Foundation Office of Inspector General led by Inspector General Allison Lerner and the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General under Inspector General Teri L. Donaldson.
Malakhov's sentencing is set for April 22, 2025 at 2:00 p.m., before Judge Geraci.
