"I had to hire an attorney and was paid $800 less than I was owed," she said. "I was just one of the lucky ones. He owes a lot of people a lot of money."

When Air Platinum started last summer, it had all the trappings of a super-premium private jet service ready to cater to the needs of the rich and famous. Heiress Paris Hilton, rapper Jay-Z and singer Beyonce Knowles flew with Air Platinum, for example.

This was the business model: For fees beginning at $163,000, the customer received 15 hours of flight time on a 14-passenger Gulfstream GIV or similar private jet. Not a seat on the plane but the whole plane.

And the plane would ferry customers from wherever they happened to be to wherever they cared to go.

The company also provided or arranged charter service on a fee-for-trip basis.

If a member's travels included a stay in Miami, Cohen offered additional perks such as the use of an 80-foot yacht, a three-bedroom condominium at the exclusive Aqualina Resort and Spa in Sunny Isles Beach, and a choice of luxury cars such as a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Lamborghini or an Aston Martin

Unlike concierge services that would arrange these vehicles from third parties, Cohen stressed that his equipment belonged to him. "It's my aircraft," he said last summer. "The boat is my boat. The car is my car."

Not anymore.

Former Air Platinum pilot Dan Moore said he flew the plane back to Ashton Aviation, the Seattle-based company that was leasing it to Cohen. The company hired Moore for the flight, telling him Cohen hadn't made the payments.