According to a law enforcement affidavit for his arrest, a Southwest Airlines employee in Dallas issued $203,146 worth of SWA gift cards to himself between January 2013 and April 2014. The affidavit states that he used some 457 gift cards to buy himself and friends flights while sold others on gift card resale websites.
The affidavit went on to state his employment with Southwest included, at least at one point, job responsibilities of fraud detection and investigation. However, Southwest turned its attention back on one of its own, opening an internal investigation in April 2014 after a coworker alerted Southwest of inconsistencies in one of his transactions, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The suspect turned himself into Dallas authorities and was released on $5,000 bond on Monday, June 2, 2014.
So, have you purchased any Southwest Airlines gift cards on your favorite gift card resale website lately? They may not have come from Staples after all.
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The suspense is killing me – were any Bexar County, Texas judges and district attorney staff buying these stolen Southwest gift cards? As you may recall a few years back these scumbags were caught buying stolen Southwest vouchers from one of their own court bailiffs.
Here’s more on that story:
http://policecrimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12265
Result: A federal jury found 3 of 5 guilty of buying and selling stolen Southwest vouchers (Bexar sheriff’s deputy Mark Kedrowski, Mattie Epperson and bailiff Pedro Martinez Jr.). Found not guilty were the DA’s ex-driver Mark Gudanowski and Deborah Robinson.
So can he pay for bail with gift cards? (sigh)
Denied, along with no 2 free checked bags.