Jared Michael Swensen of Ventura arrested in connection with fraudulent representations of helicopter parts
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Jared Michael Swensen, 48, of Ventura was arrested Tuesday on a ten-count federal grand jury indictment alleging that he and his company -J&J Enterprises LLLP- defrauded customers by misleading them about the total service hours logged for helicopter parts being sold.
Swensen will make his initial court appearance for an arraignment on his charges Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court and retained Deputy Federal Public Defender Annick Jordan as his criminal defense attorney shared the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in a press release Tuesday.
The indictment also charges Swensen's Oxnard-based company which did business as Light Helicopter Depot and both Swensen and J&J Enterprises LLLP are charged with two counts of wire fraud and eight counts of fraud involving aircraft parts shared the U.S. Attorney's Office.
On April 10, a federal grand jury returned the indictment which explained that Swensen and Light Helicopter Depot solicited and accepted work to overhaul and maintain helicopters added the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to the indictment, the defendants were expected to remove helicopter parts that were approaching or had reached their replacement period and are alleged to have installed older or not overhauled parts that were closer to their use limitations than represented.
Failure of these parts would likely cause a crash noted the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Swensen and his company are alleged to have made materially false entries into the helicopter's maintenance logbook and fraudulently altered sales orders and packing slips to match the false entries that misrepresented the age of the helicopter parts, sometimes years newer than their actual age stated the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The indictment also alleges that the defendants fraudulently altered Federal Aviation Administration release certificates which are used to certify aircraft parts are airworthy to falsely claim that the certificate was issued more than two years after its actual issuance date.
Swensen and Light Helicopter Depot then sent invoices and received payments in connection with this work and the April 10th indictment alleged two such fraudulently induced payments were received from customers in February and May of 2023.
The image below from the indictment shows the two payments from customers detailed above.
The indictment further alleged that the defendants made a series of fraudulent representations related to helicopter parts that included false writings, entries, and records from April 2020 to August 2023.
If convicted, Swensen could face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count of wire fraud and up to 15 years for each count of fraud involving aircraft parts stated the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Light Helicopter Depot would be fined up to $10 million for each aircraft parts fraud count and up to $1 million for each wire fraud count if convicted added the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General is investigating this matter with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dennis Mitchell and Danbee Kim are prosecuting the case explained the U.S. Attorney's Office.
