Last summer, we told you about a former employee at Delta and Northwest airlines who, along with a partner, duped the companies out of millions of dollars by submitting and paying invoices to a bogus company. That partner was recently sentenced to 10 years behind bars and now must turn over all the fun toys he bought with the ill-gotten money.

The scheme worked like this. The airline staffer was a supervisor of Northwest’s Minneapolis-based communications group and then later with Delta when it acquired Northwest. In this position, he was able to sign off on certain invoices submitted to him.

So a partner in California created a bogus company, Airborne Voice and Data, which invoiced Northwest and Delta for services it never provided. Over the course of 14 years, this added up to around $36 million.

With that money, the scammer was able to buy himself a mansion in Beverly Hills and a 72-foot yacht, all of which must now be forfeited as part of his promise to repay the $36 million.

On Sept. 15, the employee involved in the scam entered a guilty plea on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 23.

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