[Paul Daigle, Ex-CEO of Black Hall Aerospace Indicted 11/17/2020. Read Update here.]

We received an email from Paul Daigle of the Russian-linked aerospace company Black Hall Aerospace, Inc. a/k/a AAL USA, Inc.

Last March, Balch & Bingham scrubbed all website references to successfully changing Russian sanctions on behalf of the aerospace company just weeks after we exposed Balch’s connection to Black Hall.

Daigle wrote:

“I am the majority owner of Black Hall Aerospace and, based on some of your posts, I believe you have been given some misleading and flat-out false information about Black Hall Aerospace. I left the U.S. Army as a Captain after flying Apache attack helicopters on many combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I have given my working life to supporting the United States and its men and women in uniform. In your January 25 post, you describe Oleg Sirbu as ‘the owner of Black Hall.’  That statement is demonstrably false and whoever led you to believe that Oleg Sirbu has any ownership interest in Black Hall Aerospace gave you misinformation.”

Mr. Daigle, who kindly invited us to visit their facilities in Huntsville, appears to be bothered that we linked the company to Oleg Sirbu, although there is nothing in his email outlining or discussing anything else that could be “flat-out false.”

In our response email, we replied:

“Thank you for your email Mr. Daigle.  We appreciate your service to our country and taking the time to write to us.  However, the issue of ownership is being fought in court currently. That is why we list the entity as Black Hall Aerospace, Inc. a/k/a/ AAL USA, Inc. (or vice-versa.) We met with Oleg Sirbu’s legal team at Burr Forman last February 28^th who were upset we called AAL USA, Inc. a/k/a/ Black Hall Aerospace, Inc. a Russian-linked aerospace company. As we pointed out to them your employment agreement with AAL Group Ltd.  [a former parent company] clearly said mediation would be conducted in the UAE either in English or Russian.”

The questions that we (and others) now have are:

Who at Balch or on the Trump campaign picked the Russian-linked company as the venue in 2016 for the endorsement of then-candidate Trump by Jeff Sessions?  What did Balch & Bingham promise to do for Black Hall Aerospace a/k/a AAL USA? Who did Daigle meet with on Capitol Hill and over at the U.S. Department of Defense while lobbying for a change to Russian sanctions in 2014 and 2015? Did then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions or his staff assist Black Hall anytime between 2014 and 2016?

It’s back.

The website run by the Soviet-born owner of  Russian-linked aerospace company AAL USA Inc. a/k/a Black Hall Aerospace Inc. that had been shut down days after a national story appeared in Real Clear Investigations, has been brought back to life three months later.

Balch & Bingham used to lobby for the Russian-linked aerospace company and successfully changed Russian sanctions in 2015, but then foolishly scrubbed their website last March after we exposed their links.

The home page of aviationintelligence.org is now missing all the aviation certifications from Russia (pictured) and a passionate letter from Oleg Sirbu outlining the alleged “heist” of his business by corporate management, written exactly one year and a day ago.

However, the site now contains more filings from federal and state court, including Jefferson County. And guess who the presiding judge in Jefferson County is?

Judge Carole Smitherman, mother and patron saint of the unconstitutional, secretive, and corrupt Star Chamber in the Newsome Conspiracy Case.

You can’t make this up!

Haven’t we seen this act before?

With the recent idictment of Michael Flynn, the CDLU has been approached by the most esteemed media outlets about Balch & Bingham’s success at changing Russian sanctions in 2015 for Russian-linked aerospace company Black Hall Aerospace, Inc. a/k/a AAL USA,  Inc.

Likewise, federal investigators near Quantico are zoning in on our posts about Balch’s Russian activities, including their foolish website scrub.

We do not know if this is activity from the Office of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III or a separate investigation spurred by our contacts on Capitol Hill.

In November, we wrote how Balch’s success in changing Russian sanctions had now become a liability.

It surely has.

Either way, we are pleased that someone, somewhere is seriously looking into the matter.

Black Hall Aerospace, based in Huntsville,  is currently in the middle of an ugly legal fight between Oleg Sirbu, the Soviet-born owner, and a U.S. management team that is accused of allegedly diverting $3.2 million of corporate assets to purchase among other things a house, an airplane, and a coffee house.

The Washington Post made a strong observation as they wrote about Russian ties to the President’s orbit of advisors.

“While Trump has sought to dismiss these Russia ties as insignificant, or characterized the people involved in them as peripheral figures, it has now become clear that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III views at least some of them as important pieces of his sprawling investigation of Russian meddling in last year’s presidential campaign. Documents released last week as part of Papadopoulos’s guilty plea show that Mueller’s team is deeply interested in the Trump campaign’s operations, including possible links to Moscow, at even the lowest levels.“

That’s what makes Black Hall Aerospace, Inc. a/k/a AAL USA, Inc. so significant. Then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions was going to endorse then-candidate Trump at that Russian-linked aerospace company in Huntsville owned by a Soviet-immigrant. (The venue was changed at the last moment.)

Who made that initial decision? What favors were they trying to obtain?

As we told Mueller’s team:

“On or about March 2, 2017, after we had exposed them in our public education campaign, Balch scrubbed their website of all references to their successful lobbying in D.C. of changing Russian sanctions for Black Hall Aerospace. The website scrub not only created a cover-up, it magnified to what lengths Balch would go to sugar-coat the past.  In addition, their [now former] top lobbyist in Washington changed his resume, removing all references to his success in changing Russian sanctions. What in the world is Balch hiding?”

Yes, hiding. Maybe Mueller’s team will find out the truth.

Concealment, perpetuation, and personal gain.  Those words ought to sound familiar to prosecutors at the Office of Special Counsel of the U.S. Justice Department.

On May 23, 2017, Balch & Bingham attempted to deceive the public and Politico.com of their lobbying efforts on behalf of Russian-linked Black Hall Aerospace, saying they “previous represented” the firm owned by Soviet immigrant Oleg Sirbu when in fact they were still representing them at the time.

But why on or about March 2, 2017, after we had exposed their connection to the Russian-linked aerospace company, did Balch scrub their website of all references to their successful lobbying in D.C. of changing Russian sanctions for Black Hall Aerospace?

Why did their top lobbyist in Washington, William F. Stiers, change his resume, removing all references to his success in changing Russian sanctions?

Two days after the Politico.com story posted, we wrote to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III:

Since Black Hall Aerospace was paid through a subcontract of Leidos from a U.S. Department of Defense contract, and Balch may have been paid by Black Hall Aerospace in part from those resources, we believe a thorough forensic audit is in order…. Balch still represents the Russian-linked aerospace company, now being run by a questionable management team that is accused of diverting millions of dollars during the 2016 election cycle in what a court pleading called an “attempted heist.”

Balch terminated their relationship with Black Hall Aerospace a month later, on June 30, 2017, according to a July 12, 2017 filing.

Now, this past month, another lobbying firm, Upstream Consulting terminated their relationship with Black Hall Aerospace effective October 31, 2017, according to an October 27, 2017 filing.

Upstream Consulting is run by the Haddow brothers.  One of the brothers, C.M. “Mac” Haddow served time in prison 30 years ago for “following ‘a course of conduct which involved concealment, perpetuation and personal gain.'”

What a lovely cast of characters!

Now is the time for Mueller and his G-Men to go deep into the intricate ownership, corporate structure, financial records, and wire transfers of Black Hall Aerospace.

With the federal indictment today of Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates,  K Street is shaking as two lobbying firms, The Podesta Group and Mercury, were hired in an alleged criminal scheme to influence Capitol Hill on behalf of the government of the Ukraine.

The two lobbying firms allegedly pocketed $2 million in fees.

Allegedly laundering $12,000,000 and not registering as foreign agents, Manafort and Gates are not the only ones facing prison time. So is George Papadopoulos, a former Trump adviser,  who plead guilty to lying to the FBI today about his contacts with the Russian government.

Since the inception of Office of the Special Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, the CDLU has been briefing Mueller’s team about Balch & Bingham’s lobbying of a Russian-linked aerospace company called Black Hall Aerospace, Inc.  a/k/a AAL USA, Inc.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, between 2014 and 2017 Black Hall Aerospace paid out over $1.3 million in lobbying fees, including a portion to Balch,  to influence decision makers in Washington, DC.

On the same day as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russian investigation, March 2, Balch scrubbed their website about their success in changing Russian sanctions on behalf of Black Hall.

Now is the time for Mueller and his G-Men to go deep into the intricate ownership, corporate structure, financial records, and wire transfers of Black Hall Aerospace.

If anyone lies to the FBI as Balch attempted to deceive the public about their lobbying ties to Black Hall, they should be treated like Papadopoulos.

Are federal investigators finally scrutinizing Balch’s client Black Hall Aerospace, Inc. a/k/a AAL USA, Inc., the Russian-linked aerospace company tied  to Soviet immigrant Oleg Sirbu?

In February, when the CDLU met with Sirbu’s attorneys Benjamin Coulter and Victor Hayslip, we were baffled why Sirbu had not gone to criminal investigators at the FBI. Allegedly U.S. management had stolen corporate assets and wrongfully spent corporate resources on personal items, including a home, an airplane, and a coffee bar. That looked like embezzlement to us.

The response had that unusually moment of silence and then a pivot to a discussion about the civil action being a priority.

On or about March 2, 2017, after we had exposed Balch & Bingham’s connection to  Black Hall Aerospace  in a public education campaign, Balch scrubbed their website of all references to their successful lobbying in D.C. of changing Russian sanctions for Black Hall Aerospace. The website scrub not only created a cover-up, it magnified to what lengths Balch would go to sugar-coat the past.

In addition, Balch’s top lobbyist in Washington, William F. Stiers, changed his resume, removing all references to his success in changing Russian sanctions.

As we outlined in our Russian-Linked Scandal page and in our correspondence to Office of the Special Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice,  besides the stealing of assets, Black Hall has had questionable revenue growth while having only one certified mechanic out of 400 alleged employees, going from less than $1 million in revenue with fewer than 20 employees in 2014  to growing to over 400 employees and $50 million in revenue by 2016, according to court filings.

Sirbu was running a website called aviationintelligence.org that contained all the corporate court documents and Russian aviation certifications in his fight against the alleged corporate thieves.

But yesterday, almost a week after the publication of a Real Clear Investigations article on Balch, the site was scrubbed and shut down. (See screenshot above).