Continental Airlines is suing nine of its pilots, reports ABC News, claiming they faked divorces in order to draw down their pension funds before retirement. The airline became suspicious when some of the couples continued living together and all nine couples eventually reunited. Continental believes the pilots became worried about the safety of their pension funds, especially after seeing what’s happening at other airlines. [%comments]
A Profitable Divorce
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I can’t watch the video, but what are they suing them for, a sham divorce? Either they got legally divorced or not. I don’t think there’s anything in the law enforcing the terms of divorce outside the divorce agreement. It just sounds like Continental has a loophole they need to close.
And yet, gays and lesbians can’t get married…
“All nine couples eventually reunited”… this is obviously selection bias. Couples who divorced but did not reunite, and couples who never got divorced, were not included in the lawsuit.
It’s criminal fraud on the company, plain and simple. At best, it was unethical.
These pilots told their employer they intended to divorce their spouses, which entitled the non-employee spouses to get an early distribution of 1/2 the pension (and we’re talking nearly a million dollars in some cases).
The reality was the divorce was a complete sham. Each of these couples continued living together and acting in every way as if they were still married. They didn’t even inform their families, children or anyone else of the “divorce.” All of them “reconciled” and legally remarried shortly after getting the money. (Gee, what a coincidence.)
Even if not “legally” married, they all continued in common law marriages, so the withdrawals were simply not warranted. There’s no loophole to plug up. It’s theft.
Selection bias is fallacious reasoning. That is like saying the police should arrest and the courts prosecute people who walk out of a store without shoplifting, because otherwise it is selection bias agains the people who steal.
These “divorces” were shams. People who behave like they are truly divorced are not acting fraudulently. The comparison is not legitimate.
Pretty clear economic incentive, if true. I would say this is rational behavior, and that they just gamed the system a bit.
The legal status of the pilots’ relationships shouldn’t be any of the airline’s business. They ought to get rid of the pension or stop treating married, unmarried and divorced people differently.
Another example of why there should be NO discrimination (by employer OR government) on the basis of marital status. It’s ridiculous!