Two air execs hit with bribery, tax charges

The head of an airplane-leasing company formerly based in Naperville and a former executive with another based in Wood Dale have been hit with federal charges that they joined in a fraud scheme.

According to a federal grand-jury indictment filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Brian Hollnagel, owner of BCI Aircraft Leasing, formerly based in Naperville and now in Chicago, bribed Brian Olds, then a high-ranking executive with AAR Corp., based in Wood Dale, to push through a couple of airplane sales favorable to BCI in the mid-2000s.

The indictment charges that Olds was offered $250,000 to push for AAR to buy two BCI planes leased to US Airways for $15.4 million, at a $4 million profit to BCI, then sold three AAR planes leased to Continental Airlines to BCI for $15 million.

The complaint further charges that Olds, 67, of Kildeer, received at least $400,000 through these arrangements and funneled much of it through a company he created, Mercury Air Corp. Olds was also charged with federal tax evasion.

Hollnagel, 36, of Chicago, pleaded not guilty to a charge of wire fraud and was released on $1.7 million bond after being arrested Tuesday. Olds too was charged with wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but was not arrested and will be arraigned at a later date.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Hollnagel with running "a massive Ponzi scheme" through BCI in 2007.

Neither returned calls seeking comment.