Podcast: The Truth About the Market
Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF
Somewhere today, someone may wire $40 million to an aircraft escrow company in Oklahoma City they’ve never visited, run by people they’ve never met, in an industry with no dedicated federal regulator and no government guarantee behind the account.
And they’ll probably sleep just fine.
That same person may spend 20 minutes disputing a $90 credit-card charge.
Why?
Because aviation has built an extraordinary amount of trust around one word:
Escrow.
The used-aircraft market clears tens of billions of dollars through a relatively small group of title and escrow firms—many clustered within a few miles of the FAA Aircraft Registry in Oklahoma City.
Most closings work exactly as intended.
But in 2020, one of the industry’s long-established names became tied to one of aviation’s largest fraud cases.
Hundreds of millions of dollars.
A federal conviction.
A 16-year sentence.
And a reminder that the word “escrow” itself is not the protection.
The structure is.
In Episode 57 of The Truth About the Aviation Market, Jason Zilberbrand breaks down how aircraft escrow actually works, why Oklahoma City became the center of the aircraft-title universe, how back-to-back closings create hidden complexity, what piston-aircraft buyers get wrong, and the five questions every buyer should ask before wiring a dollar.
In this episode:
- Why aircraft transactions are fundamentally a standoff between buyer and seller—and how escrow makes them possible
- Why the FAA’s race-notice filing system makes document sequence just as important as the money
- How one unreleased lien from decades ago can stop an otherwise clean aircraft transaction
- Why aircraft title work can become “archeology” on older airplanes with long ownership histories
- How Oklahoma City became the center of the aircraft title and escrow industry
- Why a surprisingly small number of firms clear enormous amounts of aircraft transaction volume
- Jason’s view of the major title and escrow players—and what distinguishes one firm from another
- Why new-aircraft OEM deliveries often close through major aviation law firms rather than traditional title companies
- How non-citizen aircraft trusts work and why more than 10,000 aircraft may sit inside them
- Why modern business-jet closings can involve a simultaneous race between the FAA Registry in Oklahoma City and the International Registry in Dublin
- Exactly how an aircraft closing works from deposit through title search, lien releases, tax positioning, and final filing
- Why the irreversible moment in a $30 million aircraft deal can take roughly 90 seconds
- What a back-to-back transaction really is
- Why an end buyer’s money may effectively fund an intermediary’s acquisition minutes before that intermediary resells the aircraft
- Why lenders are often far less comfortable with back-to-backs than dealers and escrow firms
- The warning signs that you may be involved in a back-to-back transaction without being told
- Why the seller named in your purchase agreement should match the actual registered owner—or trigger questions immediately
- Why jet escrow can cost only a few thousand dollars even when the wire itself is worth tens of millions
- Why piston-aircraft buyers may need professional title work even more than large-cabin jet buyers
- How an $85 title search can uncover decades-old liens, missing releases, probate problems, and broken ownership chains
- Why Jason strongly discourages handing over a cashier’s check at the FBO without running title and escrow
- The tax consequences of closing an aircraft in the wrong jurisdiction at the wrong time
- What the Wright Brothers Aircraft Title case reveals about the difference between trusting an established name and verifying the structure behind it
- How the same aircraft were allegedly reused across multiple purported investment transactions in the fraud described by federal prosecutors and trial evidence
- Why Jason says the wrong lesson is “escrow cannot be trusted”
- Why the right lesson is “the word escrow is not the protection”
- Alternatives to traditional Oklahoma City escrow, including aviation law firms and bank trust departments
- And the five questions Jason says you should ask before placing a deposit or sending closing funds
The money is only half the job
Aircraft escrow exists because buyer and seller cannot safely move first.
The buyer does not want to release millions of dollars without receiving clean title.
The seller does not want to release the airplane before receiving the money.
And unlike real estate, the asset can start its engines and leave the country before dinner.
So the escrow agent holds both sides of the transaction:
The money.
And:
The documents.
But Jason argues that the paperwork may actually be the more important half.
Aircraft title runs through the FAA registry under a race-notice system.
The sequence matters.
A bill of sale filed before the correct lien release—or an old lien nobody realized was still open—can create a problem no amount of correctly wired money fixes.
That’s why the title company is not just holding cash.
It is protecting the filing sequence.
Why Oklahoma City?
The answer goes back to the FAA Aircraft Registry.
When aircraft registrations, bills of sale, liens, releases, and related filings centralized in Oklahoma City, a private ecosystem formed around the registry.
Title firms.
Escrow companies.
Aviation lawyers.
Filing specialists.
For decades, physical proximity mattered because documents were literally walked into the registry.
That geography became institutional knowledge.
And institutional knowledge became trust.
Today, Jason notes that the FAA’s own list includes dozens of title firms and law practices, with a heavy concentration in Oklahoma City.
A relatively small group of people clears an extraordinary amount of money.
That works because the market trusts them.
Which is exactly why the failure of one trusted name matters.
The 90-second pivot
A typical aircraft closing may take weeks of preparation.
Purchase agreement.
Deposit.
Pre-buy.
Title search.
Lien releases.
Lender payoff.
Tax planning.
Registration paperwork.
International Registry authorizations.
But when everything is finally ready, the closing itself can happen incredibly fast.
One conference call.
Final written confirmations.
Funds released.
Documents filed.
FAA priority protected.
Dublin filings completed.
Jason describes the irreversible pivot of a major transaction as taking roughly 90 seconds.
That minute and a half is why wire procedures, document sequencing, and escrow instructions deserve far more attention than most buyers give them.
Back-to-backs: legitimate, common—and easy to misunderstand
A back-to-back occurs when an intermediary buys an aircraft and resells it to the end buyer almost immediately.
Done properly, Jason emphasizes that this can be completely legitimate.
The dealer takes title.
Takes risk.
Earns a margin.
But the structure matters.
The end buyer’s money may effectively be what enables the intermediary’s purchase.
And because the two contracts can remain confidential from each other, neither side necessarily knows the dealer’s margin.
The real problem arises when the intermediary does not properly appear in the chain of title—or when the buyer has no idea the transaction is structured this way.
Jason’s warning signs include:
The seller on your contract is not the FAA-registered owner.
The bill of sale is not signed by the party you contracted with.
Nobody will clearly explain whether your deposit is being used in another leg of the transaction.
A back-to-back should never be a surprise.
The $110,000 airplane may need escrow more than the $40 million jet
Jason spends a significant portion of the episode speaking directly to piston buyers.
Why?
Because a Gulfstream that is eight years old with two corporate owners may have a cleaner title history than a 1976 piston single with eleven previous owners.
One prior owner died.
Another financed the airplane through a bank that disappeared decades ago.
A lien release may never have been filed.
The aircraft may have passed through probate.
The registration may have lapsed.
That is where an inexpensive professional title search becomes extremely valuable.
Jason’s message to piston buyers is simple:
Stop buying airplanes blindly.
The cost of title work and escrow is tiny compared with the legal and financial mess created by buying someone else’s unresolved lien.
The Wright Brothers case
Jason then turns to the public federal record surrounding Wright Brothers Aircraft Title and Aircraft Guarantee Corporation, businesses associated with Deborah Mercer Irwin.
According to the Department of Justice, trial evidence, and reporting Jason cites in the episode, aircraft-related investment transactions were represented as being protected through escrow while funds were instead used in a broader fraud scheme.
The case ultimately resulted in federal convictions and a 16-year sentence for Mercer Irwin.
Jason is careful about the lesson.
The scheme was not simply an ordinary aircraft buyer’s closing funds being stolen out of a normal live transaction.
The allegations and convictions involved investment transactions that used the language and credibility of aircraft escrow to create trust.
That distinction matters.
But so does the underlying lesson:
The victims relied heavily on the reputation of an established industry name.
And the word “escrow” itself created a sense of safety.
Jason’s conclusion:
The escrow account is not what protects you.
The protection comes from:
Segregated funds.
Clear written instructions.
Independent verification.
Insurance.
Bank controls.
Title work.
And the integrity of the people controlling the account.
Five questions to ask before you wire
Jason closes the episode with a practical due-diligence checklist:
1. Is my money held in a segregated account?
Ask the firm to confirm the bank and account structure in writing.
2. What insurance stands behind the escrow company?
Ask about errors-and-omissions coverage, fidelity protection, and the applicable limits relative to your wire amount.
3. How are wire instructions verified?
A serious closing process should include callback verification to a known number and strict controls around last-minute changes.
4. Who performs the title search, and how far back does it go?
For older aircraft, Jason recommends understanding whether the search reaches back through the complete chain of ownership and how orphaned liens are resolved.
5. What happens if the transaction dies?
Especially in a back-to-back, the escrow instructions should state clearly what happens to your funds if another leg of the deal fails.
Jason adds one more practical point:
If you do not want your aircraft acquisition involved in a back-to-back transaction, that prohibition can be written directly into the transaction documents.
The bottom line:
Aircraft escrow is one of aviation’s most important pieces of private financial infrastructure.
It moves enormous amounts of money.
It makes transactions between strangers possible.
And the overwhelming majority of the time, it works.
The lesson from the failures is not:
“Don’t trust escrow.”
It is:
Don’t confuse reputation with verification.
Ask the questions.
Confirm the structure.
Verify every wire.
Read the escrow instructions.
Understand the chain of title.
And remember:
A good escrow company should have boring answers to all of your questions.
Because when millions of dollars are moving, boring is exactly what you want.
For accurate, defensible aircraft valuations trusted by lenders, insurers, attorneys, operators, and aviation professionals worldwide, get started with your VREF Online Membership today.
VREF it before you make the call.
The market doesn’t care what you wired. It only cares what got filed.
Fly safe. Stay smart.
