3 Men Sentenced in Aircraft Parts Fraud : Courts: A San Clemente distributor was given 2 1/2 years in prison and fined $250,000. Two Anaheim men who supplied the parts, which did not meet FAA standards, were fined $5,000 each.
Three Orange County men were given federal prison sentences Wednesday after admitting they took part in a scheme to sell counterfeit aircraft parts to the commercial airline industry and Defense Department.
The parts, which did not meet standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration, consisted mainly of bushings and bearings used in landing gear, authorities said. Federal authorities have initiated prosecutions nationwide against distributors of unapproved parts.
No plane crashes have been attributed to the components, officials said.
James L. Daniele, a parts distributor from San Clemente, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined $250,000 during an appearance in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va. Danny Rudd and George Lisenko, both of Anaheim, who ran a company that supplied parts to Daniele, were each fined $5,000. Rudd was given a seven-month term, and Lisenko a six-month sentence.
Daniele, 51, and his firm, D&D; Air Inc., earlier had pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and Rudd and Lisenko, both 48, pleaded guilty to wire fraud. They were indicted last fall after a two-year investigation, and all are cooperating with authorities in a broader probe.
A search of invoices at D&D; determined that 950 unapproved parts got into service, received by 10 to 12 airlines that officials would not identify, according to authorities. Of those, the FAA judged 130 parts as having the potential to adversely affect safety or operations of an airplane. FAA officials said they have ensured that the 130 substandard parts are not being used.
The FAA regulates the design and manufacture of airline parts, requiring that components be certified by makers to meet standards. Prosecutors said Daniele recruited machine shop owners and other manufacturers to sell him fraudulently certified parts for resale. Lisenko and Rudd, who ran Omni Machine Corp., a firm in Whittier, sold him bearings and bushings.
Officials pointed out Wednesday that the typical Boeing 747 contains about 6 million parts, many of them redundant in case some fail. While several hundred other unapproved parts from D&D; might still be in service, the officials said the public should not be concerned.
“We do not believe, based on what we’ve seen, that any of these are so egregious that they need immediate action by the FAA,” said Thomas E. McSweeny, director of the agency’s aircraft certification service.
The FBI and Defense Criminal Investigative Service, which handled the case, said they discovered that about 85% of the 15,000 parts, worth $12.5 million, in D&D; stock were unapproved. Federal authorities have launched proceedings to take over the company and intend to seize the inventory. The unapproved parts will be destroyed, authorities said.
