Man charged in $630K fraud involving FAA certifications

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A 57-year-old Cartersville man has been charged with defrauding a Dubai government agency of hundreds of thousands of dollars by delivering bogus FAA approvals for aircraft modifications, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Aviation consultant Andrew Kent Anderson was arraigned Tuesday afternoon on a federal indictment charging him with nine counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, authorities said.

“Andrew Anderson is charged with bypassing the certification process by providing false and fraudulent FAA certifications to his clients who sought his assistance with obtaining legitimate FAA certifications,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release.

Anderson had been hired to help obtain FAA approval for certain modifications to several airplanes, including a Boeing 747 and two Avro jets, owned by the Dubai Air Wing of the government of Dubai, prosecutors said.

The defendant provided certificates purportedly issued by the FAA but in truth were not, prosecutors said. He was paid more than $630,000 for his services. The alleged fraud occurred between April 2008 and June 2010. A federal grand jury indicted Anderson on Dec. 20.

If convicted, Anderson could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud counts and fined up to $250,000.

Another defendant in the case, Tod Anderson, 54, of Portage, Mich., on Dec. 14 pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the fraudulent certificates for the Boeing 747, prosecutors said.

Tod Anderson is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 23. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Prosecutors did not say if the two Andersons were related.