A 73-year-old former regional sales manager for the now-dissolved Tulsa company BizJet International Sales and Support has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe foreign government officials in order to steer aircraft-service business to the firm. Jald Jensen, who is of Panama City, admitted to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a case that stretches back more than a decade.
According to News On 6, citing the U.S. Department of Justice, Jensen entered his plea Oct. 29. Federal officials described the plea as the final conviction in the long-running case, which centered on bribes paid to foreign officials to secure aircraft maintenance contracts for BizJet.
Jensen worked as a BizJet regional sales manager from 2004 to 2010, during a period when the company provided aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services to customers across Latin America, Mexico and Panama. That client roster was notably high-profile: the station's report notes the work included aircraft maintenance for the Mexican president, Mexico's federal police, the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, and the Panama Aviation Authority.
How the Bribes Were Allegedly Funneled
Prosecutors said Jensen bribed foreign officials who had influence over contract awards and conspired with others to direct business to BizJet. Jensen and his co-conspirators allegedly concealed the payments by funneling money through various U.S. bank accounts, including through a shell company Jensen controlled called Avionica International & Associates Inc., per the same account.
Jensen was charged more than a decade earlier alongside other BizJet executives in connection with the bribery scheme but remained outside the United States until his arrest in Panama earlier this year. He was extradited from Panama to the United States in September, finally bringing him before a federal court to face the charges.
Company Already Paid Millions, Three Executives Already Sentenced
BizJet itself settled its part of the case years ago. The company entered a deferred prosecution agreement in 2012 and paid an $11.8 million criminal penalty. Three of Jensen's co-conspirators — former CEO Bernd Kowalewski, former Vice President of Sales and Marketing Peter DuBois, and former Vice President of Finance Neal Uhl — pleaded guilty between 2012 and 2013. The three executives were sentenced to probation in 2013 in exchange for their cooperation in the prosecution, according to the FBI.
BizJet has since been dissolved as a subsidiary into its parent company, Lufthansa Technik, meaning the business at the center of the scheme no longer exists under its original name. Jensen now faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and a federal district court judge will schedule his sentencing for a date sometime in 2027.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Aviation Services
BizJet's case is not an isolated example within the aviation maintenance industry. Dallas Airmotive Inc., a Grapevine, Texas-based provider of aircraft engine maintenance, repair and overhaul services, separately admitted to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and agreed to pay a $14 million criminal penalty, according to an FBI press release. Together, the cases illustrate how foreign bribery enforcement has repeatedly touched companies competing for government aviation contracts in Latin America.
