thorough oversight program in comparison to the Detroit FSDO. By the middle of 1999 fines associated with regulatory violations by the company totaled over $750,000. Most of the violations dealt with the mechanical airworthiness of the company's aircraft. GAE began to complain about the close scrutiny they were receiving from the Cleveland FSDO and alleged this was based on racism because GAE President, Tahir Cheema, was Pakistani. The managers and inspectors at the Cleveland FSDO denied the allegation by Cheema. Walter Moor was one of the FAA Primary Operations Inspector over GAE while the certificate was supervised by the Cleveland FSDO. Moor told Cheema the Cleveland FSDO was simply following the “handbooks and regulations, and their job was to ensure that those requirements were met". Leroy Moore was the FAA manager of the Cleveland FSDO during this time period and stated, that “in Cleveland you had to follow the regulations”. Ken Shauman, was the former FAA Primary Maintenance Inspector over GAE while the certificate was supervised by the Cleveland FSDO. In April 2001, prior to the transfer of the certificate to the Detroit FSDO, Shauman wrote: “This is not a safe, nor compliant motivated operation. All the indicators and comparison factors, predicting a major catastrophic event in this operator’s future, are glaringly evident”. Cheema in testimony to the NTSB after crash of N183GA stated that "the FAA told him that the certificate would remain at DTW" but once the company moved the FAA moved the certificate to Cleveland. "He said that the Cleveland FAA was totally different than the Detroit office. He said there was no communication with the FAA; however they kept getting letters of investigation from the FAA. The company had meetings with the FAA trying to work things out. He said he talked to the FSDO manager but was shuned off by her". Regarding the violations found by the Cleveland FSDO, Cheema told the NTSB that in six months the violations totaled over $750,000 and nobody would talk to the company. At that time he was traveling a lot and was not able to respond to the letters within FAA's deadline of 10 days as he was not at the company. "However, now when he is on the road other management personnel open his mail". Mr. Cheema said at the time Mr. Shauman was the principal maintenance inspector from the Cleveland FSDO. "Following an inspection, he said