DOJ CLAIMS AEROSPACE COMPANY VIOLATED RUSSIAN SANCTIONS
March 24, 2025
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On February 13, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) indicted Flighttime Enterprises Inc. (“Flighttime”), an Ohio-based subsidiary of a Russian aircraft parts supplier, along with three of its current and former employees, for violating Russian export restrictions. As background, the indictment asserts multiple counts of violating and conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act (“ECRA”). The ECRA was initially signed into law by President Trump in August 2018 and empowers federal agencies to implement stringent export controls to impede access to the technologies and other items enabling Russia’s destabilizing conduct. According to DOJ, following the Russian invasion into Ukraine, Flighttime and its employees intentionally evaded export restrictions imposed on Russia by mislabeling shipments, providing false certifications, and obscuring end users for aircraft parts via intermediary shell companies. One such example involved a Flighttime employee falsely certified in a signed Russia end-user certificate that an auxiliary power unit from an American supplier would be used in West Chester, Ohio yet the part was illegally exported to Russia without the required license. If convicted, the three Flighttime employees could face up to 20 years in prison. Now more than ever, those in the aviation industry must establish robust export control compliance systems to avoid illicit transactions and safeguard supply chains from inadvertent vulnerabilities.
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