Investigations
Southern California Company Sentenced for Fraud Involving Aircraft Parts
On July 23, 2014, VJ Engineering, Inc. (VJE), Garden Grove, California, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, to two years of probation and ordered to pay $100,000 for prosecution costs and over $186,000 in restitution to a commercial aircraft parts manufacturer and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
On March 31, 2014, VJE pleaded guilty to committing fraud involving commercial and military aircraft parts in U.S. District Court, Santa Ana, California. VJE submitted certificates that falsely claimed aircraft parts were in conformance with requirements, specifications and drawings as approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and the DOD, when they were not. According to the commercial aircraft parts manufacturer, the parts were structural and carried flight and emergency loads. If the parts failed, objects could have loosened during a landing or crash and caused injuries.
We conducted this investigation with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Army Criminal Investigation Division.