Summary

Gunter Kohlke, who controls Aircraft Components AG of Zurich, Switzerland, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New York, NY, to selling military helicopter parts to foreign countries in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Some of the parts had been rebuilt even though they were documented as factory-new. A middleman, Kohlke purchased parts from Mike Turner, president of Air Technology, in Naples FL, and resold them. In June 2000 Kohlke told an OIG special agent that Turner sold him substandard aviation parts. In the plea agreement, he agreed to withdraw a claim he had filed earlier regarding $107,339 (the cost of the parts), which the United States had seized. Kohlke is scheduled for sentencing on May 14. OIG aided the U.S. Customs Service in this investigation.