Posted on 05/25/2009 8:21:07 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Continental Airlines has revealed that it is taking legal action against nine of its pilots that allegedly got divorces so their ex-spouses could collect retirement benefits – while the pilots continued to fly.
According to the airline, the pilots involved in the scam concealed the divorces from their children and their friends, and then re-married after the ex-spouses received payouts from the carrier.
Continental said that the amount it paid out amounted to $10-11 million, all in pension distributions.
Eight of the nine pilots involved have either quit or been fired, but one was hired back by the airline after making a commitment to pay the money back, according to an airline spokesman - although he had been named as a defendant in the lawsuit after failing to repay the pension distribution. The “ex-spouses” were also named as defendants in the action.
The suit was filed in Houston’s federal district court last week by the airline and the pilots’ retirement plan committee. In the action, Continental is asking the court to order that the pilots return the money and also to declare that the airline was not in violation of any anti-discrimination laws when it fired the pilots.
Continental charged that the pilots were taking advantage of a loophole in a federal pension law that allows payment of benefits in divorce actions, before the worker actually retires. Seven male and two female pilots were named in the lawsuit.
“P.I.’s earn their living proving stuff like this”
Most states have no-fault divorce. Any reason is good enough,,.
If you assume that the pension plan has a finite amount of money to be distributed to retired pilots, and several pilots through deception, fraud, or selfishness decide to scam the system, and take more than they are entitled to, then there is a problem. They are, in effect, screwing their fellow pilots out of receiving their proper share of the plan. BTW, 7 of the 9 were SCABS during the 1983 strike. Sort of fits the profile.
Just wait until gay marriage gets installed, and heterosexual friends start marrying for benefits...I guarantee there will be many yet unseen ways to work the system when it happens.
If same sex couples can do it..why not same sex friends? what are they going to do? Make you prove it in court?
Which means two were not. I once had an MEC chairman tell me that folks that called people SCABS, were the same kind of folks that called black folks n*****s. I thought he was being quite uncharitable, but who am I to disagree with an MEC chaiman? Your allegiance to your union, and the world view through that lens, produces a truly myopic reality. Sadly, airline pilots and other blue collar workers do themselves no service when they subscribe to this herd mentality.
Don't take this critique too personally. I've just seen too many great pilots exterminate their careers by blindly following the union line. Group psychology is seductive, but that sort of groupthink is passing. Intellectual pragmatists are needed in tough economic times. Do you really think that hating someone (and yes, that is exactly what it is) based on their acceptance of a labor arrangement they may never have personally agreed to is adult behavior? I personally think it is immoral to make such distinctions, but that's just me. Obviously the majority of union airline pilots could not publicly take such a position with others keeping score with scablists, but do you really believe that most buy into that mentality without coercion? I doubt it.
bada bing,, thats the answer. They were gay and embarrassed to say so. Cont Air would be terrified.
Bears repeating. And it is a sure way to id a union turd!
This is yet another instance where government intrusion in to marriage works to the detriment of the institution. By hanging all of these other civil legal matters on marriage, the government is complicating the issue and giving some people a powerful financial incentive to divorce. A few of these may divorce civilly, but remain married in their own eyes, but how many of these wind up divorcing completely and dissolving their bonds?
The solution, of course, is to get government out of the marriage business altogether. Let people get civil unions for the purposes of benefits, property, and taxation. Then if they choose to get married by some social or religious institution, or all by themselves, that is their business, and the government would have nothing to do with it.
"So, Your Honor, the Plaintiff has proved by a preponderance of the evidence, that the Defendants in the above cited action are both insufficiently fabulous to be covered by the Homosexual Marriage Statute, and therefore the supposed marriage should be considered null and void... etc..."
Wow.
Greed runs wild.
Rule #1 of why a crime or conspiracy will fail:
Someone else knows about it besides you.
There were at least 18 people who knew about this scam (not even counting all the lawyers, clerks, and financial consultants involved in the divorces). The chances of all them keeping their mouths shut was x10 to the negative 32th power.
The gay marriage issue is squabbling over government benefits, government encouraged private benefits.
No. One is a crime and the other isn't.
Two people live together. The next year, the tax code changes to say that if they marry they pay less in tax. They get married to take advantage of the the rule. The next year as a married couple they receive money that they would not ordinarily receive had they stayed unmarried. Is that fraud? How about two married people that are no longer in love. They now sleep in different rooms, take separate vacations but stay married for financial reasons, let's say it's a health benefit from one spouse's company. That company would pay less if they got divorced. They endure a loveless marriage for money. Is that fraud? Should they be forced to split? Should companies and governments have a "Love Czar"?
Continental set a rule. They followed it. Don't want the behavior? Don't set the rule.
Men are marrying Men and Women are marrying Women and Transvestites are marrying ITS! and we get excited about utilizing a Legal Option? Unbelievable! Let them go , just keep the Pilots attentive and polished when they are Flying me anywhere! :-)
Continental Airlines has revealed that it is taking legal action against nine of its pilots that allegedly got divorces so their ex-spouses could collect retirement benefits -- while the pilots continued to fly. According to the airline, the pilots involved in the scam concealed the divorces from their children and their friends, and then re-married after the ex-spouses received payouts from the carrier. Continental said that the amount it paid out amounted to $10-11 million, all in pension distributions.They need to mail their resumes to the White House.
I have a good buddy who’s a Continental pilot... I can’t wait to tease him about this. (He’s happily married for many years, and his daughter flies A-10’s in the Idaho ANG, and has smoked mucho Taliban).
You think that money isn't theirs? Before you go tossing around words like "scam" and "slimy" and "fraud", park you high horse and think about how those terms apply to what these people are actually doing. You're claiming they are trying to take something that isn't theirs. Really? What are they trying to take that does not belong to them? Are they taking someone else's pension money? No. Are they trying to take Continental's money? No. Are they taking an amount of money that is more than they put in? No. They are trying to gain access to the money THEY PUT IN. As far as I can tell from the story, they did not get one more cent back than the balance in THEIR account. More specifically, they are trying to get THEIR money that is being controlled by a company that is failing. This is not a "what if". Continental is losing money. Lots of money. If the company goes down, their money could be at risk. Furthermore, at the rate the government is printing money, THEIR money is losing value. They would like to preserve that money. As it happens, there is a legal vehicle to do that. Civil divorce. They are using the legal means at their disposal to opt out of a bad situation created by Continental and the government.
Now,why do you think Continental would fight tooth and nail to keep them from getting access to pension money that does not belong to Continental or TO ANYONE ELSE? Hmmm?
Reporters are lazy. Just because they use the word "scam" to make these people look like villains for wanting their own money back, doesn't mean you have to fall for it without stopping to think about what is really going on.
I know this is alot of information for you to wrap your brain around that is why I tried to keep it simple on the previous post. This is why we are in the financial mess we are in.....because of greed, and that is exactly the behavior these pilots showed when they did what they did! Not to mention, making a mockery of marriage to expose a loop hole in the system.That pissed me off more than the double dipping of benefits.
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