Investigators Say Former Assistant to Delta VP Embezzled $250K

Falling dollars on a white background

An assistant to some of Delta Airlines top executives is accused of using her position to steal nearly a quarter million dollars from the airline.

An ex-Delta Airlines employee is awaiting a court date on federal charges that she defrauded the third largest airline in the U.S. out of hundreds of thousands of dollars over a seven-year period. Federal prosecutors say Emily McElwaney, who was employed by the carrier as an executive assistant, used her access to high-level credentials to trick the company into reimbursing her for personal expenses and even the purchase of American Express gift cards. McElwaney is accused of using another employee’s login information to approve the unauthorized payments. During her time at Delta, she worked under at least two high-ranking Vice Presidents at the company.

The legacy carrier confirmed to Atlanta television station WSB-TV that an internal corporate investigation led to the Federal wire-fraud charges. “Delta conducted a thorough investigation of this former employee’s conduct and turned the matter over to the justice system when our investigation concluded,” a Delta Airlines spokesperson said in a statement.

This isn’t the first high profile case of a Delta Airline employee accused of abusing their position to skim a staggering amount of money from the Atlanta-based company. In February of this year, a former Delta employee, Paul Anderson, was sentenced to a ten-year prison term for using his position as manager to steal more than $36 million from the airline over a ten-year span.

This most recent case of alleged employee theft is remarkably similar in practice to Anderson’s misdeeds. While McElwaney stands accused of a much less ambitious embezzlement plot, both schemes relied on tricking the airline into approving unauthorized invoices.