July 19, 2022
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England, announced that KYLE J. WINE, 41, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today via videoconference before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford to fraud and money laundering offenses stemming from a $7 million scheme related to his commercial aircraft supply businesses.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Wine owned and operated various companies engaged in the business of commercial aircraft supply, including JetPro International, LLC (“JetPro”), Nexus Aviation, and Turbotech Partners. From at least 2018 through 2021, Wine defrauded investors in aircraft-related transactions. Wine used victims’ money to purchase aircraft airframes and engines, sold the aircraft airframes and engines, hid the resulting profits from his investors, and diverted invested funds for his personal use.
As part of the scheme, Wine induced an investment firm based in Darien, Connecticut, to invest $4.5 million in the purported acquisition and sale of an Airbus A320-231 airframe and two aircraft engines. Wine sent fictitious correspondence to the victim investor, and created fake domain names and email accounts and the used those email accounts to send fraudulent correspondence to the victim investor, to trick the investor into believing that JetPro was attempting to sell the Airbus airframe and the two aircraft engines to certain buyers. In fact, Wine had already sold one engine for $2.45 million and the Airbus airframe for $1.3 million. He never informed the victim investor of those sales and shared none of the proceeds of the sales with the investor. Wine also used some of these invested funds to purchase another aircraft engine without the knowledge of the victim investor.
In total, Wine’s fraud scheme caused $7,152,666.67 in losses to 13 separate victims.
Wine pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, and one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.
Wine is released on bond pending sentencing, which is not scheduled.
This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan N. Francis.
