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An aircraft parts broker who sold critical engine components with forged documentation, sparking widespread concerns about safety in the global aviation supply chain, has been handed a sentence of almost five years for fraud.
Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala received four years and eight months on Monday for orchestrating the “utterly inexcusable” scheme that grounded planes around the world when it came to light in 2023.
The one-time techno DJ operated the fraud, which caused losses of at least £39mn for the global aviation industry, in part from a garage in Surrey, Serious Fraud Office officials told reporters.
Southwark Crown Court heard that Zamora’s company, AOG Technics, sold bolts, washers, blades and other engine components worth about £6.9mn that had forged documentation.
Over four and a half years, about 60,000 suspect engine parts entered the global aviation supply chain, the court heard.
The vast majority of revenues produced by AOG, in which Zamora was the sole shareholder between 2019 and 2023, were based on fraud, said barrister Faras Baloch, prosecuting.
Zamora, 38, forged documents to certify parts for the CFM56, the world’s best-selling passenger jet engine found on older Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.
Although less than 1 per cent of CFM engines in service were affected by the issue, the fraud sent shockwaves through the tightly regulated aerospace industry. Experts warned it exposed serious loopholes.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Picken told Zamora: “Your offending involved a more or less complete undermining of a regulatory framework designed to safeguard the millions of people who fly every day of the year. That framework is there for good reason. What you did was reckless at best and utterly inexcusable.”
Zamora created fake employee identities to create an illusion of a bigger operation, the SFO said. In fact only four people — the defendant, his then wife, her brother and the family’s nanny — were on the company’s payroll, the agency said.
The court was told that Zamora hired a graphic designer to help fake documents. An iPhone seized from his home in December 2023 showed his web search history included: “When you edit a PDF cam [can] you hide that it has been changed”.
Fifty customers of AOG including Ethiopian Airlines were sold parts accompanied by forged documentation.
The largest financial hit to be quantified was suffered by American Airlines, which did not purchase parts directly from his company but from suppliers that obtained parts from AOG, the court heard.
Twenty-eight of American’s engines were affected by unapproved parts, Baloch said. The company incurred a loss of £23mn as a result of his activities, the court heard. The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case has highlighted the global parts trade that underpins the maintenance and servicing of airline fleets.
Portuguese airline TAP raised the alarm in 2023 after discovering that some engine parts showed significant wear despite having been supplied by AOG with documents suggesting they were new.
Newer CFM Leap engines were not affected by Zamora’s fraud.
Nicola Howard KC, representing Zamora — who pleaded guilty in December to one count of fraudulent trading between 2019 and 2023 — told the court that he accepted he “cut corners in order that he could trade more speedily”.
She said that he did not fully appreciate the ramifications of his actions at the time and that his remorse was “demonstrable”.
His sentencing is a success for the Serious Fraud Office after setbacks for the agency, whose director Nick Ephgrave is due to step down next month midway through his five year tenure.
Southwark Crown Court heard this month that the SFO has dropped a prosecution against former executives of London Mining following a decade-long investigation after problems were discovered with its evidence review software.