Missouri Man Defrauded Darien Investment Firm Out Of Millions: Feds

DARIEN, CT — A Missouri man accused of defrauding multiple victims, including an investment firm in Darien, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering offenses stemming from a $7 million scheme related to his commercial aircraft supply businesses, federal authorities said.

Kyle J. Wine, 41, of Lee's Summit, Mo., waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty via videoconference before U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford on Tuesday.

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. He is released on bond pending sentencing, which is not scheduled, authorities said.

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, Nexus Aviation and Turbotech Partners.

From at least 2018 through 2021, Wine defrauded investors in aircraft-related transactions, authorities said, noting that 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, authorities said Wine had an investment firm based in Darien invest $4.5 million in the purported acquisition and sale of an Airbus A320-231 airframe and two aircraft engines.

Wine sent false correspondence to the victim investor, and created fake domain names and email accounts and then 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," authorities said.

However, Wine had already sold one engine for $2.45 million and the Airbus airframe for $1.3 million, authorities said, and 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, authorities said.

In total, authorities said Wine’s fraud scheme caused a little over $7.1 million in losses to 13 separate victims.

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.