Southwest Airlines worker assists customers at Dallas Love Field airport on Jan. 4, 2023, in Dallas. (Lola Gomez/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — A Southwest Airlines worker at Chicago Midway International Airport was indicted in a federal court in Chicago Tuesday on accusations of creating and selling over $1.87 million in travel vouchers.
According to a federal indictment released Tuesday, Dajuan Martin, 36, from Bolingbrook, Ill., worked as a customer service representative with Southwest in Chicago from Nov. 2018 to June 2022 and would use fake customer names to generate the “Southwest Luv Vouchers” without the airline’s knowledge.
Martin then allegedly turned around and sold the vouchers below market value to a man named Ned Brooks, 46, from Chicago, and others. Most of the vouchers were worth $200 to $500, according to the grand jury indictment.
Southwest’s travel vouchers are typically used to compensate customers that have had unfavorable travel experiences and are redeemable for travel.
Brooks and others would text Martin requesting vouchers, according to court documents. None of those that texted Martin were entitled to vouchers. However, Martin would log into the computer system at Midway and generate these vouchers.
Martin has been charged with 12 counts of wire fraud and Brooks was charged with four counts of wire fraud. Arraignments have not been scheduled yet.
An indictment is not evidence of guilt, the justice department explained. The defendants are entitled to a trial and each count of wire fraud is punishable of up to 20 years in federal prison.
Last month, an American Airlines mechanic at John F. Kennedy International Airport was convicted of smuggling 10 bricks of cocaine hidden in an electronics compartment under the cockpit of a plane.
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