Kermit, Jerry and Jay are in court today...

[Warbirdnerd]

Kermit Weeks is in Tucson today with Jay Whisler and Jerry Yeagan testifing in court. Here is the quote from Kermit's Facebook page:

OK, here's the reason why I HAD to come to visit Tucson, as well as Jerry and Jay... We were subpoenaed for a trial!

Seems a certain gentleman sold Warbird parts that were never delivered to a number of customers and then could not repay all the monies he accepted! I'm out $8000 but the total approached $100,000.

I testified this morning and the trial is continuing. We'll see how it turns out for all involved!

Anyone know the details or is the back story online somewhere?

[P51Mstg]

Scammed on parts.... Gee thats a new one....

Who was doing the scamming?

Mark H

[PinecastleAAF]

Scammed on parts.... Gee thats a new one....

No kidding, I can't count the number of times I've heard similar stuff about this 'hobby' over the years.

[K5DH]

Hmmm... Tucson... maybe one of the aircraft scrappers surrounding AMARG was doin' some dirty dealin'?

I'm definitely going to follow this thread. I love it when crooks get what they deserve. I have zero tolerance for scammers.

Dean the intolerant

[Fearless Tower]

Who was doing the scamming?

Barron Thomas???

[P51Mstg]

Barron Thomas.....

Interesting, I'd guess not though... Didn't seem like a warbirds parts kind of guy.

If you look him up there was some kind of security fraud case for selling an "investment" in buying airplanes.... Saw it last year sometime, pretty old stuff...

Mark H

[bdk]

Bankruptcy hearing perhaps?

[Asterperious]

No - it is against Matthew Q. Haughey, his erstwhile company was featured in Warbird Digest Jan 2008. He has a history in Australia of running fast and loose with biz practices, promises and parts and moved to the US in 2007 and picked up where he left off and this is the inevitable outcome. Best to speculate and besmirch people for things they have not done. There are no scrap yards in Tucson anymore, just ARM and John Gasho who ar remainly storage locations, and Barron Thomas is in PHX and doesn't do warbird stuff typically, biz jets and civil stuff.

The AZ court docket is not open yet until the trial is over. Mutliple counts of felony fraud.

http://www.warbirddigest.com/backissues/backissues.htm

[Lightning]

Howdy Asterperious

Is that the guy who was setting up to build several P-63s which was featured in Warbird Digest
Pretty sure I read he had previously worked in Australia

Lightning

[gary1954]

sounds like a plane crash to me.
Speculation.
Speculation sucks.
Why not just wait and see if Mr. Weeks puts something on his blog.
He may, or may not.....

[spinner]

Yup, speculation stinks,

[spinner]

Bit close to a necro post, but I'm in Tucson this week and it Turns out that after a two week trial that jury cleared Haughey in less then two hours.

And according to friends in Darwin, he also has a pretty good rep in the chopper community in Oz.

[JohnB]

The aviation world, filled with high dollar parts, seems particularly hit with these scandals (or criminal acts).

A few years ago a helicopter rebuilder got in trouble for allegedly lying about of the times of helicopter rotor blades...5340 magically turned into 340....or something similar.

At least in this case it seems to be a question of money rather than safety.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1453777.html

http://www.oig.dot.gov/library-item/3520

[spinner]

Yes I have to agree with you John, Aviation has seen more then a few problems of that nature, I think we have all seen it.

So when I found out during my first weekend in Arizona that this Haughey fella had been cleared so quickly by the jury I thought that it was only right that the news be posted here, a place where many of us posters seemed to have had him convicted already last year.

Most of us who have spent any amount of time in aviation have run into scammers, so often that it is easy to believe the worst when you hear stories. I must tell you it was a nice change to find out that it wasn't the case this time.

[JohnB]

On the plus side, aviation isn't alone.
I'm into old cars...and there are plenty of liars, crooks and outright thieves in that world.