Airline Executive Sentenced to Prison for Scheme to Defraud Cargo Airline
Former airline executive Skye Xu was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud Polar Air Cargo Worldwide of more than $32 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on May 15. Xu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
From 2020-21, Xu operated the California-based Sky X Airlines and paid around $4.4 million in kickbacks to shell companies controlled by three senior Polar executives in exchange for two contracts with the airline. These "fraudulently obtained contracts" netted Xu and Sky X around $46 million in gross revenue "based on the sales of unused space on passenger airlines to transport cargo during the COVID-19 pandemic," the U.S. attorney's office said.
These kickback payments were part of a more than $20 million kickback scheme the Polar executives and other co-conspirators received from other Polar customers. The scheme has already led to jail time for various former Polar executives (see 2410020016). Xu is the last of 10 defendants to be convicted and is the fifth of the 10 to be sentenced.