Extreme Networks reported that some of its networking equipment had been funneled by a former employee to a Russian military contractor. The vendor is also investigating whether other current or former employees were involved in the Russia scheme.

The incident, which Extreme reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing late last week, was initially brought to the vendor’s attention by an unnamed “news organization.”

Extreme noted it used the information to uncover actions by a former employee who is now working with a Russian distributor. That employee sold Extreme products to a Russian entity named DEMZ that was a front for Russia military contractor subsidiary MMZ Avangard, which is on a U.S. sanction list.

"The former employee continued to perpetuate this scheme upon going to work for the distributor after being terminated by Extreme for performance issues," Extreme explained in the filing.

The Russian distributor ordered Extreme products from 2018 through 2021 for different entities that had made the orders for DEMZ. Sales of those products totaled $645,000 over the five-year period.

"The technology that was sold as part of the distributor’s scheme was legacy networking hardware used to enable network connectivity," the vendor noted in its SEC filing.

Those products were then routed to MMZ Avangard, which Extreme reported was an indirect customer of a networking business it had acquired in July 2017. Extreme closed its $100 million purchase of Avaya that month.

Extreme said it stopped work in Russia in March, a move echoed by a number of technology vendors after Russia invaded Ukraine.

"Extreme continues to review these matters including whether current and former employees may have been involved," the vendor added. "Extreme has notified U.S. regulators and will continue to be vigilant in implementing best in class export control processes and controls."

The vendor is scheduled to release financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2023 later this month.