The biggest fraud: an English company sold pieces of airplane engines for many years.

Engineers are working on several aircraft engines. The name Michael Smith appears on dozens of documents accompanying spare parts for the engines. As a quality assurance manager at Aog Technics Ltd, a company specializing in the sale of such materials, his role is to ensure compliance: even the smallest of these products must withstand high temperatures and operate at very high speeds. On his LinkedIn profile, Smith is presented with a smiling and reassuring face. Or rather, he was presented that way. Because a few days ago, his social media account disappeared. And that photo, upon closer inspection, does not actually belong to this Smith. It is available in online stock photo databases.

This is not the only fake profile. Other "employees" of Aog are appearing on LinkedIn - a commercial director, a sales manager, and a client manager - with photos taken from archives. But the most serious accusation now comes from one of the largest engine manufacturers - hundreds of signed Aog certificates have turned out to be forgeries and were used in civil aviation.

For several weeks now, an unprecedented hunt for parts supplied by Aog Technics has begun worldwide. Cfm International - whose engines are installed on Airbus and Boeing - is checking thousands of components along with the documentation from the British supplier's "employees." If, of course, they even exist. The alarm is so great that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (Easa), the UK Civil Aviation Authority (Caa), and the US Federal Aviation Administration (Faa) have issued special warnings requiring all airlines to inspect their aircraft.

Currently, at least 700 parts - from more than 130 aircraft - have fake certificates, according to the latest official reports. This number is expected to grow. Meanwhile, specialists and authorities are questioning how a company could sell counterfeit materials for five years in the most regulated and controlled sector - the aviation industry - without being detected and stopped.

Regulation of safety in civil aviation

Civil aviation is regulated through dozens of "filters" that have made high-altitude flights the safest way to travel. This is because every detail in an airplane must be certified as "suitable" for flight. "Even the curtains separating different classes, the carpet on the floor, or decorative flowers in the restrooms must have documentation proving that this material can be there because it does not pose a safety risk to the flight," explains one of the Italian executives working in aircraft maintenance in Malta. "The same applies to spare parts during repairs," he continues. For example, every bolt must have its own "history," tracked on paper from the company that produced it to the person who inspected it and marked it as fit for installation on board. "However, no special permission is required to create spare parts and distribute them," the expert continues. "There isn't even a database that anyone can access and verify." Deals, on the other hand, are based on "trust" between the seller and the airline in a "practically self-regulating" market with thousands of parts crossing the world every day through these real "brokers."

Aog Technics Ltd

Aog Technics Ltd is also part of the "brokers" segment, which, according to hundreds of pages of official and court documents accessed by Corriere, was founded and is managed by José Alejandro Zamora Yral in February 2015. Yral, originally from South America, was 27 years old at the time. Before starting to sell spare parts, he was a DJ under the pseudonym "Santa Militia" in Italy and Spain, as Bloomberg, which was the first to report on the incident, reminds us, while British tabloids are also interested in the case.

In 2021, according to documents filed in the UK, Yralo became the director of Kensho Group, a real estate company that was closed in January of this year. Also in 2021, he became the director of another company, Sunwave Solutions Ltd, which is involved in "retail sales by mail order or online." Both Kensho and Sunwave share the same address: a cottage in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, south of London. Various attempts to contact Yralo for comment were unsuccessful at the time of publication. There was also no response from his business partner at Sunwave, a Colombian citizen and Yralo's peer, who is listed as the "commercial director." As for Aog Technics, according to the latest share document, Yralo owns "directly or indirectly 75% or more of the company's shares."

The history of Aog Technics Ltd

Aog's business initially struggled.

Investigation results

One of these components arrives in Lisbon at the technical center of Tap Air Portugal at the end of spring 2023. It is a shock absorber designed to reduce vibration inside the Cf6 engine. The Portuguese technicians check the Aog Technics documentation, which states that this is a brand new part. However, upon closer inspection, they notice signs of wear, which is unusual for a never-used product. This is not a minor issue: most engine components have a limited lifespan depending on their "cycles" of use. Knowing the "age" also helps determine when inspections and, if necessary, replacements should be carried out. So, on June 21, the Portuguese technical center officially reports its suspicions to Safran, the French company that, together with General Electric, manufactures Cfm engines. It turns out that nothing is as it seems: neither the signatures, nor the dates, nor the order number are valid. An international alarm is raised, and a hunt for suspicious materials begins. Cfm itself realizes that it has received material from Aog with incorrect certification. In August, the situation starts to leak into the media and becomes public knowledge. Cfm's lawyers accuse Aog of orchestrating a "fraudulent and complex scheme aimed at deceiving the market with large-scale forged documents," says one of them, Matthew Reeve. Attempts to contact Aog for an official comment via email or phone were unsuccessful. At court hearings, company representatives stated that management wishes to "fully cooperate" with the investigation. By October 16, 2023, several airlines reported counterfeit documents related to Cfm56 engines used in Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. Among them are: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Virgin Australia, WestJet, Tap, Tui. This is the best-selling type of engine in the world: as of now, there are about 29,250 Cfm56 engines in operation - according to data from the specialized database Ch-Aviation - and one takes off every two seconds. At a hearing on September 20, High Court judge Richard Meade orders Aog to "disclose all sales of Cfm jet engine components made since 2015 and later, within two weeks." The company, which is called an "aviation parts broker," is officially accused of selling thousands of engine components (models Cfm56 and Cf6) with forged airworthiness certificates.

“So far we have avoided tragedies,” sighed one of the managers working in aircraft maintenance. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen: who knows how many more AOGs are out there.” Especially since authorities currently can’t do anything. EASA, which oversees safety in European airspace, notes that it cannot investigate AOGs because spare parts suppliers are not registered.