Two Florida businessmen have been sentenced to more than three years in prison for supplying fraudulent aircraft parts for military and commercial aircraft.

As the Defense Department continues to struggle with counterfeit parts, the Government Accountability Office warned, “Almost anything is at risk of being counterfeited, from fasteners used on aircraft to electronics used on missile guidance systems.”

The latest case involves Daytona Aerospace, Inc., a South Florida aviation parts broker, and its officers, Henry McFlicker and Ayodha Persaud. The U.S. attorney’s office for South Florida said the company received more than $8.5 million in contracts to provide various aircraft parts to the U.S. Air Force and Navy for use on KC-135 or E-3 military aircraft.

Federal prosecutors said the defendants misrepresented the condition and origin of the parts. Although the orders and contracts called for new surplus parts manufactured by Boeing, the defendants instead used various unauthorized local dealers to manufacture the requested parts and then falsified documentation.

In an unrelated investigation, GAO created a fictitious contractor to order military-grade electronic parts from online vendors. All 16 parts purchased were suspect counterfeit and an independent testing lab found most of them did not meet specifications. Thirteen of the 16 parts came from vendors in China.

GAO said 396 online vendors responded to its requests for quotations. Most of them were in China.

The auditors said counterfeit parts can “disrupt the DOD supply chain, delay missions, affect the integrity of weapon systems, and ultimately endanger the lives of our troops.”