By Allison Lampert
March 17 (Reuters) - The gleaming, late-model European jet for sale was a rarity in the hot market for second-hand corporate aircraft.
It was only after aviation lawyer Amanda Applegate's client did some additional digging that they discovered the aircraft, while not registered in Russia, was in fact Russian-owned.
For that buyer, it was a deal-breaker, said Applegate, a partner at U.S.-based Soar Aviation Law, as the West imposes sweeping sanctions in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
The private jet world is on high alert to avoid doing business with Russia at a time when a Twitter account run by a Florida teenager, @RUOligarchJets, has focused popular attention on the fugitive luxury fleets of the ultra-rich.
"When I look at compliance, it's like a taco, wrapped in a burrito, wrapped in a chalupa," said an executive at a business jet manufacturer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to European data research and consulting company WINGX, there are only about 100 business jets on the Russia Register. Yet about 400 corporate aircraft flew frequently from the country last year, raising questions over the true extent of Russian control of the fleet.
"We think that a good proportion of the 400 are owned by Russia-based individuals or entities," said WINGX managing director Richard Koe.
Worried planemakers are handing out questionnaires and doing extra vetting to make sure parts shipped to repair centers outside Russia aren't inadvertently sustaining jets covered by sanctions, the manufacturing executive said.
That's far from easy in the ultra-private world of corporate aviation.
Most Russian-owned business jets are registered outside the country and ownership is camouflaged behind layers of shell companies and trusts.
Some 5% of European business jets are registered in Russia, according to Jefferies analysts. But those actually owned by Russians could be up to triple that amount, analysts say.
VETTING EXPORTS
One of the world's largest maintenance firms, Germany's Lufthansa Technik, has set up a task force and created an export approval process to avoid violating sanctions that ban technical support as well as shipments of parts to Russia.
"This means more complexity for our global supply chain processes," a spokesperson said.
Planemakers must be sure that a part shipped to a maintenance center won't later end up on an aircraft owned by a sanctioned person or entity.
That's not such a problem when orders come in for parts for a specific aircraft, identified by its serial number. But in some cases the order could come from a maintenance center without mentioning a specific jet.