Summary

On February 25, 2010, Jorge Cascante, owner and operator of Cas Honeycomb, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Repair Station located in Miami, Florida, was charged in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale, with one count of aircraft parts fraud in connection with selling eight aircraft panel assemblies bearing Boeing aircraft part numbers to a Miami aircraft parts broker.   Mr. Cascante manufactured aircraft panel assemblies and identified them with Boeing parts numbers when in fact; he does not have the authority to manufacture these Boeing aircraft parts.

This investigation was initiated based on information obtained from an anonymous complaint alleging that a conspiracy existed in which companies who were not approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the Department of Defense (DoD), had manufactured aircraft for military and civilian aircraft.  According to the complainant, in most cases, these manufacturers would not sell directly to the U.S. Air Force (USAF), but instead sold to various brokers or authorized DoD contractors, who conspired with them to sell the substandard aircraft parts to the USAF.  In cases where the customer required supporting FAA authentication documents, the complainant indicated that brokers would further conspire with FAA repair stations to falsify FAA forms, giving the illusion that the manufactured parts had been approved by the FAA and were suitable for installation on an aircraft.

This investigation is being conducted jointly with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security/US Immigration and Customs Enforcement with technical assistance from FAA.