Aviation Firm Pleads Guilty in Import Ban

In the first prosecution under a 1986 anti-apartheid law, an aviation company and its chairman pleaded guilty Wednesday to importing four jet engines that were owned by South African Airways.

Air Ground Equipment Sales Inc. of West Babylon, N.Y., and its chairman, Robert Fessler, had been indicted Monday. The guilty pleas were part of an agreement with federal prosecutors, who said the case was the first prosecution under the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. Fessler faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Fessler told U.S. District Judge Mark A. Costantino of Brooklyn that he had been negotiating to buy the engines from South African Airways before the law was enacted. The company went ahead with the purchase and shipped the engines to Israel.