In August 2015, Volga-Dnepr paid $11,250 for a speaker's fee for Michael T. Flynn's appearance at a Washington, D.C. event on economic security in the Middle East it co-hosted with another American company. Danny Yatom, former director of the Israeli Mossad, was also a distinguished guest at that event. The event was held nearly 6 months after Volga-Dnepr was removed from the TRANSCOM vendor list. Because of Volga-Dnepr's crucial airlift role for the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company had become acquainted with a wide variety of senior U.S. military and diplomatic officials, active and retired. Indeed, a serving U.S. Air Force general officer who later served as Air Force Chief of Staff actually took the controls and piloted a Volga-Dnepr An-124-100 in flight during a mission to Scott Air Force Base. Mr. Flynn's appointment as national security adviser came long after Volga-Dnepr's removal from the TRANSCOM airlift list and long after Flynn's retirement. As the company later explained: "At that time General Flynn was a retired military officer, not a member of President Trump's election team, and his nomination as National Security Adviser more than a year after the conference was not a factor in his being invited as a speaker".