Airplane Repair Business Owner Sentenced For Fraud Scheme

PHILADELPHIA – Jay Stout, 55, of Harrisburg, PA, was sentenced today to five years in prison for a fraud scheme that involved falsifying the inspection records of aircraft at his company, Flying Tigers, Inc.  In April 2014, a jury found Stout guilty of conspiracy, fraud involving aircraft parts, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice.   He was president of Flying Tigers, located in Marietta, PA.  U.S. District Court Judge Harvey R. Bartle, III, also ordered Stout to pay restitution in the amount of $503,340, a special assessment of $800, and serve three years of supervised release.  Stout must report to prison by December 29, 2014.  The company was sentenced to one year of probation and a $5,600 special assessment. 

            Between October 2003 and January 2010, Stout conspired with others to commit fraud in aircraft parts, mail fraud, and wire fraud, by charging customers for the annual inspections of their aircraft, despite the absence of a certified mechanic with inspection authority, a certification given by the FAA. In order to conceal the absence of an authorized certification, Stout and Flying Tigers prepared fraudulent certifications of annual inspections for the airplane and engine log books or, on other occasions, failed to create the necessary certification at all. Some customers who brought their airplanes into Flying Tigers for annual inspections were charged for the inspection, but Flying Tigers never provided a signed certification in the airplane or engine log books recording the annual inspection. By this method, the absence of the valid signature of a certified mechanic was not evident to the Flying Tigers customers. Other annual inspections were certified in the log books by Stout, even though Stout was no longer authorized to certify annual inspections. In other annual inspections, the signatures of certified mechanics with inspection authority were forged in the log books. Such was the case with one former Flying Tigers employee who left Flying Tigers in late 2006/early 2007, but whose forged or fraudulent signatures appear on certified annual inspections, both before the period that the former employee had his certification, and through October 2007, long after he stopped working for Flying Tigers. In addition, the fraudulent signature of Gilbert Stout, Jay Stout’s father, appeared on annual inspections many years after Gilbert Stout stopped working on aircraft, and the forged and fraudulent signature of Joel Stout, a Flying Tiger, Inc. employee and Jay Stout’s son, appeared on annual inspections that Joel Stout did not perform. Many airframe and engine log books, containing these and other entries, were shown to the jury during the trial. 

The case was investigated by the United States Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Arlene Fisk.

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, EASTERN DISTRICTof PENNSYLVANIA
Suite 1250, 615 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
PATTY HARTMAN, Media Contact, 215-861-8525