UK Serious Fraud Office convicts international aviation fraudster

Publisher
UK Serious Fraud Office
Date published
December 2025

Relevant impacts: Human Impact, Industry Impact, Security Impact, Business Impact

The United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured a fraud conviction for the director of an aircraft engine parts company, AOG Technics. The company was found to have operated for a fraudulent purpose, selling aircraft engine parts with forged documentation.

AOG Technics sold parts designed to be fitted into the CFM56 Engine, one of the most widely used jet engines for passenger airlines. From 2019 to 2023, the company falsified documents regarding the origin and status of their sold parts, potentially selling faulty or dangerous parts installed in dozens of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 planes across the world.

The SFO launched an investigation in 2023, working with the Prosecutor-General of Portugal and the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The 3 agencies, working with the US Federal Aviation Administration and EU Aviation Safety Agency, were able to alert airlines of the issue and ground affected planes. AOG Technic's director, Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, will appear before UK court in February 2026 for sentencing. Portuguese investigations remain ongoing.

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The Reckless

The Reckless acts without care, responsibility or regard to the consequences of their actions by disregarding requirements, procedures, warnings or directions to gain personal benefits.
ICON 026: Reckless persona

The Fabricator

The Fabricator invents or produces something that is false to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 029: Fabricator persona

The Organised

The Organised are groups which use a combination of methods in planned, coordinated and sophisticated ways to dishonestly gain benefits.
ICON 033: Organised persona

The Concealer

The Concealer hides their actions from being seen or known about to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
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Related countermeasures

Collaborate with strategic partners

Collaborate with strategic partners such as other government entities, committees, working groups and taskforces. This allows you to share capability, information and intelligence and to prevent and disrupt fraud.

Collect accurate and relevant data

Whole-of-Government policies require us to have a high level of confidence in data when providing government services and payments. Create policies, rules, processes and systems to collect accurate and relevant data to help: • process claims • make decisions • check and verify data • analyse data to detect fraud • investigate potential fraud • define new indicators of fraud.

Verify information

Verify any requests or claim information you receive with an independent and credible source.

Quality assurance checks

Conduct quality assurance activities to confirm that processes are being followed correctly and to a high standard and/or that material or goods are what they are claimed to be. Quality assurance checks not only improve processing standards, they can also detect potentially fraudulent activity and are a significant deterrent to fraud.

Incident reporting

Report on incidents or breaches to help identify if further investigation is required. Clients, public officials or contractors can take advantage of a lack of reporting and transparency to commit fraud, act corruptly and avoid exposure.

Complaints handling

Allow clients, staff and third parties to lodge complaints about actions or decisions they disagree with. This may identify fraud or corruption as a cause for complaints, such as a failure to receive an expected payment.

Coordinate disruption

Coordinate disruption activities across multiple programs or entities to strengthen processes and identify serious and organised criminals targeting multiple programs. It can also include referrals to law enforcement agencies for those groups that reach the threshold for complex criminal investigations.

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