Former Vice President and employee of Florida aircraft parts broker sentenced to prison for aircraft parts fraud

MIAMI – On May 28, Daniel Navarro, 50, of Miami Lakes, Florida, the former Vice President of Sofly Aviation Services (Sofly), an aviation parts distribution company, and Jorge Guerrero, 71, of Hialeah, Florida, a Procurement & Asset Management Specialist for Sofly, were sentenced to federal prison after previously pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. 

U.S. District Senior Judge Federico A. Moreno sentenced Navarro to 30 months in prison, to be followed by 36 months of supervised release; and sentenced Guerrero to 12 months and 1 day in prison, to be followed by 36 months of supervised release. Navarro and Guerrero were ordered to pay no less than $204,055 in joint and several restitution. A $93,309.22 forfeiture order was placed on Navarro’s property.

According to court records, beginning in 2012 and continuing into 2019, Navarro and Guerrero purchased “as removed” aircraft parts and resold them using certificates that falsely claimed the parts to be airworthy under the regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The fraudulent approval tags represented those “as removed” parts to be overhauled, tested/inspected or repaired, which misled their buyers into believing them to be airworthy. Most often, Navarro and Guerrero would use an FAA approved repair station’s FAA certificate number to falsely certify the part to have been overhauled, tested/inspected or repaired by that repair station, when in fact they never were. According to the court documents, those parts were sold to Canadian airlines and a U.S. Department of Defense contractor.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent-in-Charge Darrin K. Jones, Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Southeast Field Office, and Joseph Harris, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT OIG), Southern Region announced the sentences imposed.

DOT OIG conducted this investigation jointly with DCIS and with assistance from the FAA.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Keller prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Klco handled asset forfeiture.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under Case No. 23-CR-20416.

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