Ex-VSI Leaders Admit Offering Inducements

Three former executives of the aerospace parts company VSI of Carson, Calif., pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges related to providing prostitutes, cash payments and other gifts to win business.

The three, who held top positions at the leading maker of nuts, bolts and rivets used in airplanes and other aircraft, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to defraud the government between January, 1982, and December, 1988.

They are Thomas F. Spoehr, 66, VSI president from 1980-89; G. Boyd Sellers, 60, a sales vice president from 1983-91, and Ronald A. Wheeler, 50, vice president of product engineering and technical sales from 1986-89.

According to prosecutors, the conspiracy involved reporting $374,895 in illegal business expense deductions on federal tax forms, which resulted in a tax loss of $127,705 to the government.

Scores of business favors, including paying for prostitutes, trips and use of a condominium in Marina del Rey, Calif., were falsely deducted as travel and entertainment expenses, prosecutors said.

The three agreed to cooperate with a continuing federal investigation into the aerospace parts industry. The plea was entered in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Sentencing was set for July 31.

VSI, a division of Fairchild Industries, pleaded guilty in a separate case last year to selling bogus aerospace fasteners to the federal government and commercial aerospace companies.