WPAFB engineer who lied about ‘romantic liaisons’ sentenced

A Wright-Patterson Air Force Base aeronautical engineer who falsely filled out a national security questionnaire regarding romantic liaisons with a foreign national was sentenced Wednesday in federal court.

Michael Volf Ol, who told U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rose that he was “remorseful,” received probation and was ordered not to violate any laws or have any weapons.

Rose said Ol’s false statements were “a serious offense” but that since Ol had no criminal history, “either you just went to the dark side or it’s a blip on the radar.”

PREVIOUSLY: WPAFB engineer accused of false statements about ‘romantic liaisons”

Ol’s attorneys and prosecutors agreed to a plea in which one of two counts was dismissed.

The document said Ol has been employed as a civilian servant/aeronautical engineer since 1993, lied on a Dec. 22, 2014 Questionnaire for National Security Positions.

A question on the 127-page questionnaire asked if Ol had any close or continuing contact with a foreign national within the previous seven years with whom either he, his spouse or cohabitant were bound by affection, influence, common interests and/or obligations. He denied any such connection, the indictment showed.

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The indictment said that statement was false because Ol “knew he had a romantic liaison with a foreign national” known to the grand jury as “E.K.” on various dates between Oct. 14-21 near the resort town of Biarritz, France, and from Dec. 17-26 in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

The indictment said Ol denied that he had any relationship with a foreign national, which the indictment said was false since he “engaged in a romantic liaison” known as “K.S.” near Tallinn, Estonia, from April 23-May 2, 2016.

The statement of facts indicated both trips were for Air Force sponsored business.

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Wright-Patterson officials have declined to provide information regarding Ol, who is identified in a July 2004 edition of Signal magazine as an aerospace engineer working on unmanned aerial vehicles.

Ol said Wednesday in Dayton’s U.S. District Court that he was “hopeful to serve” the United States in some capacity.

In sentencing Ol to probation, Rose said, “I’m going to assume that you have learned a lesson here.”

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