Central Coast man allegedly installed faulty aircraft parts

April 15, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

A Central Coast man is facing decades in prison for allegedly defrauding and endangering his customer by installing outdated and damaged aircraft parts in helicopters he serviced.

Federal agents arrested Jared Michael Swensen, 48, of Ventura today on a 10-count federal grand jury indictment. Swenson and his company J&J Enterprises illegally defrauded customers by misleading them as to the nature of helicopter parts he installed.

Swensen and Light Helicopter overhauled and maintained helicopters. In performing the overhaul work, they were expected to remove helicopter parts that had reached or were approaching their life limit and to replace them with new parts, parts that had just been overhauled or parts that had substantially fewer hours in service.

After removing helicopter parts – including main rotor blades and main rotor spindles – that were substantially used or near their life limit, Swenson allegedly installed older, not overhauled parts that in some cases were closer to their life limit than he claimed. He then put false entries in the helicopter’s maintenance logbook.

If the parts failed, the helicopters likely would crash.

Swenson and those working with him are also accused of fraudulently altering Federal Aviation Administration release certificates – used to certify that an aircraft part was airworthy – to falsely claim that the certificate was issued more than two years after its actual issuance date.

If convicted, Swensen face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of the two counts of wire fraud and up to 15 years in federal prison for each of the eight counts of fraud involving aircraft parts. Light Helicopter Depot, if convicted, would be fined up to $10 million for each aircraft parts fraud count and up to $1 million for each wire fraud count.