Now this is fascinating

Well, to me, someone with a buddy who supplies (military) aviation parts. Yes, it’s a hugely paperwork based industry. Parts with the paper are many times the price of the parts without. Yes, it’s an obvious place for fraudsters to go play:

Zamora founded AOG in 2015 from a rented terraced house in Hove on the South Coast.

It appeared to be small scale in its early years: the company’s registered address moved between four homes in the following three years, shifting from Hove to London in 2017. Then, the company was registered at serviced offices in central London.

Friends say they haven’t been in contact with Zamora in a number of months as he begins his defence in London’s High Court.

AOG’s website appears offline but a cached versions says the company offered “a diverse portfolio of quality products and services”.

“With our head office in the UK and warehouse operations in London, Frankfurt, Miami and Singapore, we are uniquely positioned to support our customers around the world – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” the website read. “We keep our clients flying.”

The company’s phone line is still connected but offers only endless hold music.

AOG is understood to have sold mainly smaller parts for jet engines, such as bolts, nuts, washers, dampers and seals. The parts don’t carry a serial number and are therefore harder to trace.

Worryingly, some bigger parts appear to be linked to the scandal. Some turbine blades have also been identified by CFM as suspect.

CFM is understood to believe that AOG had been passing off old parts for new ones.

Ah, but, you see. CFM has also, just recently, admitted to having problems with its *own* processes around those turbine blades. Their own manufacturing processes were in error – so it seems – about the sintering (the compression of metal powders into solid parts).

So the thing to watch for is how much of the actual manufacturing problem is going to be blamed on the fake spare parts? Fun times, fun times.