Former Allegiant Air employee accused of stealing nearly $300K in luggage claims

A former Allegiant Air employee was arrested on a theft charge months after the Las Vegas-based airline accused her of stealing nearly $300,000 in settlement funds meant to compensate passengers for lost or damaged baggage.

Court and Metropolitan Police Department records indicate that 28-year-old Alexis Herrera was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on June 6. She faces one felony count of theft valued at $100,000 or more.

In December, Allegiant filed a lawsuit against Herrera, whom the airline company accused of embezzlement and fraud. According to the complaint, Herrera had worked in various customer service roles within the company since being hired in 2017.

The lawsuit said that in August 2022 Herrera was promoted to a system baggage service coordinator role, in which she was “directly responsible for Allegiant’s baggage settlement process” and tasked with processing customer payouts.

Starting roughly two months after the promotion and up until the fall of 2024, Herrera “surreptitiously altered” payment files and reports for 83 settlement transactions and diverted the money to her bank account, Allegiant lawyers argued.

The lawsuit also said that the company began investigating Herrera after a customer contacted the company, saying they did not receive their settlement payment. What initially began as a “routine” probe eventually revealed that multiple payouts, purportedly compensating dozens of different customers, had been made to one of three email addresses belonging to Herrera, according to the complaint.

When superiors confronted Herrera, she admitted to altering the payment files and diverting payments to a bank account she owns and controls, the lawsuit said. Herrera was suspended shortly after the interview and later fired after agreeing to repay what she stole from the company, according to the suit.

The complaint stated that Herrera failed to return the money. In February, District Court judge Anna Albertson ruled a default judgment against Herrera, awarding Allegiant damages of more than $260,000.

Herrera’s lawyer, Joshua Tomsheck, declined to discuss the allegations against his client. Inmate database records indicate that she is no longer in custody.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.