As AeroVanti launches a new membership program, CEO Patrick Britton-Harr filed to use an advice-of-counsel defense in his upcoming fraud trial.
Documents filed by AeroVanti CEO Patrick Britton-Harr on Monday indicate he may assert an advice-of-counsel defense in his upcoming trial, United States vs. Patrick Britton-Harr, in Baltimore, Maryland.
According to Mayer Brown, the tactic allows a defendant to show that no wrongful intent underlay his unlawful actions.
Britton-Harr is charged with six counts of wire fraud.
Prosecutors allege Britton-Harr misappropriated $15 million from AeroVanti members, the private jet membership company he is currently resurrecting.
AeroVanti and Britton-Harr recently announced a new private jet program with Addison, Texas-based PlaneSmart.
The private aviation program launches in Florida later this month, according to an email from Britton-Harr obtained by Private Jet Card Comparisons.
Federal prosecutors filed an opposition yesterday to Britton-Harris’s motion to invoke an advice of counsel defense.
They wrote:
‘Said notice, which defendant filed yesterday with a set of 15 exhibits, proclaimed defendant’s intent to assert as a defense to the charged offenses that he relied in good faith upon advice provided by AeroVanti’s attorney, Steven Leitess of Silverman Thompson Slutkin White. But the defendant’s notice does not come close to establishing the required prima facie showing.’
In opposing Britton-Harr, prosecutors argued the AeroVanti CEO failed to provide “a sufficient evidentiary basis.”
They wrote, “his exhibits do not reflect what facts he disclosed to Leitess or what advice he was seeking, and they do not reflect that the defendant then relied on that advice when taking specific actions.”
The exhibits include copies of texts and emails.
Prosecutors added that Britton-Harr had “not proffered Leitess’s potential testimony regarding what was included in the defendant’s full disclosure of pertinent facts to counsel and his reliance on the same; to the extent the defendant would attempt to describe at trial what Leitess said, that testimony would be inadmissible hearsay.”
They added that the filing from Monday addressed “Leitess’s prior sworn statements, which contradict the assertions the defendant has made in his notice.”
The prosecutors wrote:
‘The defendant’s notice makes no effort to comply with the applicable legal standard for asserting an advice of counsel defense. Notably, he does not proffer Leitess’s expected testimony as to the core elements of the advice of counsel defense. Moreover, not one of the exhibits accompanying his notice demonstrates that the defendant disclosed all pertinent facts related to the fraud scheme alleged in this case. Nor do the exhibits provide a scintilla of evidence that he acted upon good faith reliance on Leitess’s counsel.’
The prosecutors told the judge that allowing the advice-of-counsel defense would lead to more discovery and further delay.
Several of the emails submitted by Britton-Harr include mundane topics.
In one exhibit, Leitess emails the escrow agent, writing, “[J}ust checking in to see if you can tell us the escrow balance and to request the form of release of funds certification for the parties to complete, execute, and return to you today.”
AeroVanti and Britton-Harr have faced numerous civil lawsuits.
Plaintiffs include former members, aircraft lessors, and the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The sports teams claimed unpaid sponsorships.
A former executive said in 2023 that AeroVanti may have incurred approximately $50 million in debt.
The trial is scheduled to begin May 18, 2026, at the Baltimore Federal Courthouse in Maryland.
Britton-Harr also faces a trial later this year on fraud allegations related to a medical testing company he owned.
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