News Releases

FAA repair station owner sentenced for issuing fraudulent airworthiness certificates

MIAMI - A Miami Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) repair station owner was sentenced May 24 to prison for committing fraud, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG), Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).

Willie McCain, 52, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley to one year and one day in prison followed by two years of supervised release on four counts of fraud involving aircraft parts. Additionally, Judge Hurley ordered McCain to pay $21,750 in restitution to the U.S. Air Force.

McCain, owner of McCain Research Labs, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based FAA certificated repair station, completed more than 100 FAA Form 8130's (Airworthiness Approval Tags), certifying that he was authorized to inspect and test certain aircraft parts that had been provided to him for inspection by John Falco of Falcon Aviation. However, McCain was not authorized to inspect and test these aircraft parts because they were not within his FAA rating or on his FAA-approved capabilities list.

The investigation was conducted by ICE's Office of Investigations in Miami, DOT-OIG Miami Field Office, DCIS, AFOSI Detachment 802, FBI and NCIS Southeast Field Office with the assistance of the FAA.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton.