Pilots staged sham divorces, lawsuit says

Kansas City Star reports:

Continental Airlines Inc. is suing nine pilots that it says got sham divorces so their ex-spouses could collect their retirement benefits while they kept flying.

The airline said the pilots concealed the divorces from children and friends, then remarried their spouses after getting the money.

The company said it paid out between $10 million and $11 million in suspicious pension distributions, including sums paid to other pilots who weren’t named in the lawsuit.

Eight of the pilots have been fired or quit, while one was rehired after he promised to pay back the retirement money, the airline said — although he too was named as a defendant after failing to repay. The spouses were also named as defendants.

Interesting story.