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Luxury jet operator admits to $1M in illegal flights
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A co-founder of a charter company whose jet crashed while taking off from Teterboro Airport admitted today that he schemed to defraud charter customers and the FAA, launching roughly 100 illegal flights that netted more than $1 million.
Andre Budhan, 42, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., pleaded guilty to the lead count of a 23-count Indictment, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to defraud the United States.
Budhan was a managing member of now-defunct Platinum Jet Management, which operated for a year without a required FAA-issued certificate for on-demand commercial flights.
Yet the company solicited and flew charter flight customers without telling them the truth, Budhan admitted.
Clients included Beyonce, Jay Z and Snoop Dogg, as well as investment bank members -- who were aboard in 2005 when one of Platinum's charter flights blasted through a fence at Teterboro and careened across Route 46, clipping several vehicles along the way, before smashing into a furniture warehouse on the other side.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. could send Budhan to prison for a little over four years and fine him several hundred thousand dollars on Oct. 5. The plea agreement also includes restitution.
Budhan remains free on a $250,000 secured bond.
Five co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges in the case, with a trial scheduled to begin before Greenaway on Jan. 19.
Those charged continually committed "willful violations of regulatory requirements for the operation of commercial charter aircraft," undertaking and conceling dangerous fueling and weight distribution, according to a federal indictment.
By taking an "anything goes" attitude, those charged routinely violated guidelines designed to prevent such crashes.
Because of deliberate "overtankering" of fuel, which unsafely pushed the center of gravity forward, the jet couldn't get off the ground, prosecutors allege in the 23-count indictment.
Grand jurors agreed that the defendants participated in the scheme in order to cut costs and take advantage of less expensive fuel contracts at Teterboro and other locations.
Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr. credited Special Agents of the Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General for their work in obtaining Budhan's guilty plea.
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