John M. Dial, the man who caught the headlines for all the wrong reasons has now been asked to cough up a total of $42,000 in restitution to his former three employees. He had earlier forged credentials to gain employment in an airambulance company by name Mercy Flight Central. He had also used fake credentials to gain employment as a pilot in two news agencies. The court ordered Dial to pay $14,000 to each of his former employers that he had cheated. Earlier in October he had been sentenced to 24 months in jail and 12-month supervised release.
Dial’s List of Frauds Pertaining to Airambulance Company and News Agencies
Although he was caught only in July of 2013, he had been on the wrong side of the law since 2009. Prior to being hired by the airambulance company, he had procured employment with a news agency in San Francisco area from 2009 to 2010. He had been employed by another news agency in March 2012 in Sacramento, California.
He had submitted forged Temporary Airman Certificate and an FAA Medical Second Class Certificate to gain employment as a pilot. He also had a fake United States passport in his name. In all, he is believed to have assumed 24 fake names. He also had a forgery conviction dating back to 1994, where he had make false statements to FAA. He had operated various choppers 63 times without proper credentials.
Background Checks Conducted by Airambulance Company Earlier was Ineffective
Mercy Flight Central is supplied pilots by EMS Air Services of New York. It was revealed that background checks on Dial were conducted prior to hiring him as airambulance pilot. The verification process of the airambulance company included calling up the references that he had provided but Dial had cheated through this process.
Prior to the conviction, he was facing a statutory penalty of 2-year prison sentence along with a fine of $25,000.
