2024-01-28 10:59:00
(CNN) — A Russian man who flew from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Los Angeles International Airport without a ticket, passport or visa was found guilty of illegal entry on an airplane, authorities said Friday.
Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava, 46, was found guilty by a jury and faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California.
The case unfolded last November after Ochigava arrived at LAX on a Scandinavian Airlines flight, according to the attorney’s office.
Ochigava arrived at the Customs and Border Protection checkpoint at LAX and “provided false and misleading information,” including initially telling CBP that he had left his passport on the plane, according to the complaint.
CBP officers could not find Ochigava’s name on the flight manifest of the Scandinavian Airlines flight or any other incoming international flight, according to the criminal complaint, which says Ochigava did not have a passport or visa to enter the United States.
Ochigava – who held Russian and Israeli passports – was arraigned on December 5 and pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to the prosecutor’s office.
CNN has contacted a lawyer for Ochigava for comment.
Man told FBI he wasn’t sure how he got on plane
Evidence presented during the three-day jury trial showed that on Nov. 3, 2023, Ochigava “followed an unsuspecting passenger through a security turnstile at Copenhagen Airport in Denmark so he could enter one of the terminals.” from the airport without a boarding pass,” the US Attorney General’s Office reported.
The next day, Ochigava passed through the gate undetected and stowed away aboard the Scandinavian Airlines flight to Los Angeles, according to the statement.
Scandinavian Airlines flight crew members said most noticed Ochigava “because he wandered around the plane and kept changing seats. Additionally, he ordered two meals during each meal service, and at one point attempted to eat chocolate that belonged to members of the cabin crew,” according to the complaint.
The flight crew did not see Ochigava’s boarding pass, but remembered him sitting in a seat that was supposed to be unoccupied, according to the complaint. While the flight crew counted people by section to ensure the plane was balanced for takeoff and landing, the numbers were not tallied, the complaint states.
When the FBI interviewed him through a Russian-speaking CBP officer on Nov. 5, Ochigava, who said he had a doctorate in economics and marketing and worked in Russia as an economist “a long time ago,” said he had not slept for three days, he didn’t understand what was happening, he wasn’t sure if he had a plane ticket to come to the United States, he wasn’t sure how he got on the plane or why he was in Copenhagen, the complaint states.
Ochigava, who has been in federal custody since his arrest at LAX on Nov. 4, will be sentenced in federal court on Feb. 5.
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