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PHILADELPHIA — Three people, including a Delaware County man, have pleaded guilty for their roles in “skimming” money from a major airline by manipulating the booking system.
Taylor Thompson, 28, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud Monday before U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Thompson joins Tiana Fairfax, 30, also of Philadelphia, and Theodore Robinson, 30, of Upper Darby, who previously each pleaded to seven counts of wire fraud.
The scheme
Thompson worked at Philadelphia International Airport from May 2017 to July 2018 as a customer service supervisor for a major U.S. carrier headquartered in Miramar, Florida, according to an indictment filed last year.
Fairfax and Robinson also worked as customer service agents for the same airline at PHL during the same period.
While all three had access to the airline’s central reservation system, Thompson had the ability as a supervisor to waive additional costs customers might have to pay when modifying reservations. Airline policy typically did not allow for the extra fees to be waived except for extenuating circumstances like a death in the family.
Thompson recruited customers for bogus “penny fares” — short trips at low promotional prices — then went into the system and re-routed the flights to other longer, more expensive itineraries.
Sometime in March 2018, Thompson approached a customer service agent identified in the indictment as another co-schemer and asked to use their Cash App account to receive payments from customers for whom she had changed the itineraries.
Thompson would not change the original price paid to the airline, but would charge the customers an additional, discounted rate for the new flight itinerary through the app and pocket the difference, according to prosecutors.
Thompson also approached Fairfax and Robinson to participate in the scheme in May 2018. Fairfax and Robinson also began booking penny fares, sometimes using their own debit or credit cards, then used Thompson’s credentials to change the itineraries and had passengers pay them a commission through their own Cash App accounts.
Another unidentified supervisor had also allegedly gotten in on the scheme at some point and provided Fairfax and Robinson with their credentials to use in modifying flights. That person’s unique credentials were used to continue the scheme after Thompson was fired in July 2018, the indictment says.
Robinson, Fairfax and the other unnamed agent allegedly used the second supervisor’s credit card to book flights and sent the supervisor money for the use of her credentials to change itineraries.
All told, the defendants and co-schemers modified more than 1,700 flights without compensating the airline for the changes, resulting in a total loss of $283,083, according to prosecutors.
Judgement, restitution
Fairfax, represented by attorney Thomas Burke, was sentenced to six months of imprisonment last month and ordered to serve three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $187,215 in restitution and a $700 special assessment.
Robinson, represented by Carina Laguzzi, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $123,522 with a $700 special assessment.
Thompson, represented by Katrina Young, is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 18 before Beetlestone.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Rice and Michael Donovan.
