Ex-Flight Attendant Posed As Pilot To Score Hundreds Of Free Flights, DOJ Says
It's a case that may sound familiar to anyone who enjoyed Leonardo DiCaprio's 2002 movie "Catch Me If You Can."
A Toronto man, Dallas Pokornik, was charged with wire fraud in Hawaii after pretending to be an airline pilot to get hundreds of free flights, the Department of Justice said in a news release on Tuesday, Jan. 20. The 33-year-old was indicted on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, and arrested in Panama before being extradited to the US.
According to court records, Pokornik spent four years falsely claiming he was a licensed airline pilot, using a fake employee identif…
MD Ranked Second-Worst State For Starting Businesses, Study Finds: Here's Why
Northeast and mid-Atlantic states struggle to compete with most of the country when it comes to starting a business, according to a new study.
WalletHub released its 2026 list of Best and Worst States to Start a Business on Monday, Jan. 19. The study compared all 50 states using 25 key indicators tied to startup success, including access to financing, labor costs, office rent, workforce availability, and economic growth.
The rankings were based on weighted scores in three categories: business environment, access to resources, and business costs.
"Around half of all new businesses don’t sur…
