The United States Attorney’s Office says a former flight attendant from Toronto has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after allegedly posing as a commercial pilot to get hundreds of free flights on three separate airlines. In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that the man, identified as 34-year-old Dallas Pokornik, was arrested in Panama and extradited to the United States to face charges in Hawaii after his indictment back in October. “According to court documents, Pokornik, a former flight attendant for a commercial airline in Canada, admitted to falsely posing as a commercial pilot to get hundreds of free flights on three different airlines,” the news release read. According to the release, the fraud spanned from January 2020 to October 28, 2024, and the accused used a fake employee identification card to access the free flights. It went on to say that as part of a plea agreement, Pokornik agreed to pay restitution to the three airlines, which are based in the U.S. “Travel security protocols help keep our citizens and visitors safe, and anyone who breaches those protocols should expect to be brought to justice,” U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said in a written statement. “We thank our law enforcement partners at Homeland Security Investigations and abroad for helping us hold this fraudster accountable.” The Associated Press previously reported that the Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline between 2017 and 2019. With files from The Associated Press
