News / US DoJ charges aerospace firm with smuggling aircraft parts to Russia

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Concerns over significant volumes of aircraft parts reaching Russia from the US appear well-founded, as the Department of Justice has charged another aerospace firm with sanctions-busting. 

Flighttime Enterprises, a US subsidiary of a Russian aircraft parts supplier, along with three staff, has been charged with illegally exporting aircraft parts to Russia. 

Based in Ohio and Miami, Flighttime is accused of shipping the parts to Russia – and to sanctioned airlines – by mis-labelling shipments, creating false certifications and using intermediary companies and countries to disguise the end user.

The DoJ cites four specific export transactions, worth $2m. 

In one case, it claims, the accused employees negotiated the purchase of an auxiliary power unit from an American supplier for $395,000. Whil the supplier had qualms about Flighttime’s links to Russia, it was told the part was to replenish stock in Ohio. But it was sent to Russia. 

The company and three defendants are each charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act and multiple counts of actually violating the act – federal crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison. 

They are also charged with conspiracy to commit smuggling and one count of conspiring to launder monetary instruments. 

The Loadstar was contacted last year about the growing market in aircraft spares going to Russia, primarily from Miami. One source claimed more than $500m-worth of aerospace spare parts had been smuggled into Russia out of Miami in 2023 alone.  

They told The Loadstar: “And it continues today unabated.

“There is a huge amount of aircraft spares going from MIA daily, yes Boeing and Airbus spares. There are multiple companies – suppliers, forwarders, airlines – all turning a blind eye in the name of profit. 

“US Customs has to be aware of it, [goods] going to Dubai, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan; all the ‘stans are being used for trading dual-use and sanctioned goods.”  

One consultant warned that logistics partners bear responsibility. 

“Shippers need to be asking who they are selling to, and seeing if they have ever sold to them before. This is not a significant amount of work for them, but it is a burden they must bear,” said Daniil Melnychenko, of Odessa-based maritime consultancy group Informall BG last year.  

“As it stands, it is carriers and logistics partners that bear responsibility for breaching sanctions; the shipper or seller has little to no liability when selling products.”   

“Let’s be honest, it is the shippers that allow this to happen. It is almost impossible for them not to realise a sudden huge order for equipment to Kazakhstan that they’ve never had before, or a single piece to Uzbekistan, is in all likelihood not going to these places.

“These shipments are going there to be forwarded on. We know it happens.” 

And it’s not just from the US: out of Europe, in the first 18 months of the Russia-Ukraine war, EU export volumes into the CIS region rose 80%.