Prosecutors seek second contempt charge, jail for AeroVanti founder

Federal prosecutors in Maryland are asking a judge to once again hold Patrick Britton-Harr in contempt after he failed to provide documentation of why he was unable to pay a more than $500,000 court ordered fine and that he be jailed if he fails to.

In a court filing late Friday afternoon, prosecutors asked U.S District Judge Ellen Hollander to bring the founder of the air service company AeroVanti in for a hearing to explain why he has not complied with discovery orders to disclose his finances after filing a status report detailing why he did not pay $575,000 as ordered in March.

Prosecutors write that “the United States has made good faith efforts to facilitate a response to the discovery order by offering to accept documents on a rolling basis, listing the documents to prioritize, and extending the deadline to respond before the government would seek further assistance from the court.