Air Marshal Accused of Falsifying Military Records to Score Free Exotic Travel
A federal air marshal and veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps is accused in a federal lawsuit of faking military deployments in order to receive free flights and other benefits for himself as well as his family and friends.
Dior Jay-Jarrett, 29, allegedly lied about his military responsibilities in order to obtain free travel to various luxurious locations around the globe. Jay-Jarrett served in the Marines from December 2013 until he was medically retired in November 2022; his alleged deceptions began in 2021.
According to the lawsuit, in October of that year Jay-Jarrett “began employment as a baggage handler” for an unnamed airline. Shortly after starting in the position, Jay-Jarrett “submitt[ed] falsified documents purporting to be Marine Corps orders he had never been issued” and requested an eight-month leave for military related obligations in Kuwait. The documents furnished by the accused were allegedly “signed with the name of a military official who had, according to Department of Defense records, retired in 1997.”
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After some digging, officials learned that Jay-Jarrett was nowhere near Kuwait or the Middle East. “In fact, according to authentic military documents, Jay-Jarrett had been assigned to duty as a military guard in Garden City, New York, guarding the First Marine Corps District Headquarters between in or about July 2020 until his retirement in 2022,” the complaint reads.
In June 2023, Jay-Jarrett allegedly provided falsified documents for a second time to excuse “another extended, approximately two-and-a-half-year long period of further military leave.” Jay-Jarrett allegedly claimed he had been “deployed” to the “South West Border right now” and was unable to give a specific date to his return. The complaint asserts that the documents were “signed ‘J. W. Bordgurt,’ a purported Marine Corps official who, according to a search of the Department of Defense Person Search database, appears to not exist.”
Jay-Jarrett allegedly attempted the ruse for a third and final time in July 2024, claiming in an email that after his “most recent, and current orders which should take me through the end of my military contract” he did not “intend to reenlist,” despite having retired nearly two years previous.
Prosecutors claim that Jay-Jarrett’s falsified paperwork entitled him to “travel privileges” aboard his employing airline “without actually performing work as a baggage handler.” During one of these “military leave[s],” around October 2022, the accused reportedly became a federal air marshal with the Department of Homeland Security.
“[B]y remaining on long-term military leave at Airline-1, Jay-Jarrett remained entitled to travel benefits including the ability to take unlimited, free flights on Airline-1 alongside ticketed family members or travel companions (who generally paid for a portion of their tickets, but at reduced rates),” the complaint alleges. “From in or about November 2021 through September 2024, Jay-Jarrett took at least 130 such flights — and his family and friends approximately 20 more — at a value of nearly $70,000.”
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The complaint continues: “Over the course of the scheme, from at least in or about December 2021 through in or about September 2024 [ …] Jay-Jarrett took free first-class flights to Los Angeles, London, San Diego, St. George’s, Las Vegas, and Dublin, and dozens more standard class flights to destinations including Antigua (five times), Aruba (three times), Bermuda (three times), Curaçao (twice), Barbados (twice), Belize (twice), the Grand Caymans (twice), Grenada (twice), Guatemala (twice), and a variety of other destinations including Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, and St. Maarten.”
The complaint alleges that Jay-Jarrett became so comfortable with his ruse he eventually dropped the pretense and began posting about his exotic trips on social media. “Jay-Jarrett took a five-day trip to Cabo San Lucas at Airline-1’s expense in or about August 2022, which he described on his Facebook page as being in one of 13 countries he had visited that year,” the complaint reports. “Out of the 13 countries I’ve visited so far this year, this has genuinely been one of my FAVORITE solo trips,” the accused reportedly wrote of the trip.
Jay-Jarrett is charged with a single count of wire fraud which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.