Over $200,000 Embezzled by Former Virgin America Employee
Joe Cortez December 03, 2015
Hand einer jungen Frau in Handschellen Hand of a young woman in handcuffs
Former Virgin America employee convicted of embezzling over $200,000 from the airline over 14 months.
A former Virgin America revenue analyst could spend up to a year in a California county jail for her part in embezzling over $200,000 from the airline between 2012 and 2013. San Francisco television station KRON-TV reports 43-year-old DeSonia Crossley plead no contest to charges of embezzlement, in exchange for prosecutors seeking the lighter sentence.
According to court records, Crossley began her employment with the airline in 2010, at their base in San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Three years later, another analyst working for the airline discovered a number of questionable transactions where refunds were repeatedly issued to a credit card while Crossley was on vacation.
The card was ultimately tracked down to Crossley, who issued over 108 fraudulent refunds to the card between July 2012 and September 2013. Prosecutors from the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office claim her embezzlement cost the airline $224,750 during her 14-month spree.
Although Crossley did not technically admit guilt by pleading no contest, judges in California courts accept the plea as the legal equivalent of guilty. Under an agreement reached with prosecutors, the former airline employee will receive a maximum sentence of one year in county jail.
Crossley’s conviction is the second embezzlement charge to stick against an airline employee in 2015. In August, a former British Airways employee was convicted of embezzling over $81,000 from the flag carrier through a regime of false lost luggage claims.
