AOG Technics director Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala has been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after admitting to his role in the company's bogus CFM56 parts scandal in 2023, the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said yesterday (February 23).
Zamora plead guilty in December 2025.
The office told Southwark Crown Court that its investigation found that Zamora had sold aviation parts with false documentation to airlines as part of a £39.3 million fraud.
From January 2019 to July 2023, AOG Technics sold over 60,000 aircraft engine parts £6.9 million accompanied by forged authorised release certificates (ARCs).
The bogus parts were mostly for the CFM56 engine.
According to the SFO, AOG generated over €7.7 million in revenues in four years — of which 90% was pulled in from fraud.
“The SFO exposed how Zamora used his home computer to doctor genuine ARCs, creating false memos of shipments to indicate AOG had purchased parts directly from original equipment manufacturers such as the aircraft equipment manufacturer Safran,” said the SFO.
The investigation also found that Zamora had “invented fake employees” with customers receiving correspondence from false sales managers and quality managers, which the SFO said was part of “creating an illusion of a legitimate business”.
Operations were halted in 2023 after an airline alerted Safran — one half of the 50/50 joint venture that develops CFM engines, with the other half being GE Aerospace — to the potential inauthenticity of an AOG part.
Safran was able to verify that the certification of the part was fake and alerted authorities, which prompted safety alerts from UK, European, and US aviation authorities.
Aircraft were grounded globally, resulting in an estimated loss of nearly £40 million ($54.1 million). In December 2023, the SFO had arrested Zamora following a dawn raid in relation to the bogus parts operation.
“Zamora's operation risked public safety on a global scale in a way that defies belief,” said SFO director of operations Emma Luxton.
Luxton said she was proud that the office was able to “bring him to justice” and to have swiftly resolved the criminal operation.
The industry has largely welcomed the sentence, with some calling for greater oversight and collaboration to avoid future fraudulent activities.
“There is no room for this type of behaviour and we must as an industry root it out," said Inception Aviation Holdings CEO Tasos Michael on LinkedIn. "We must do more to authenticate parts and their history. We need more oversight to stamp this out.”
Following the scandal, the Aviation Supply Chain Integrity Coalition was formed in February 2024, made up senior executives from Airbus, American Airlines, Boeing, Delta Air Lines, GE Aerospace, Safran, StandardAero, and United Airlines.