Former New Mexico Airlines President Gabriel Kimbrell. Photo/Personal Profile Page
Staff Report
Police in Miami have arrested former New Mexico Airlines President Gabriel Kimbrell and charged him with grand theft and organized scheme to defraud.
According to court documents, Kimbrell used his corporate credit card, which belonged to the airline’s parent company Pacific Wings, to make $22,791 in fraudulent purchases between January 2014 and January 2015.
Los Alamos County severed ties with New Mexico Airlines in January. New Mexico Airlines began canceling flights last November, started flying again, and then canceled more flights in December. Conflicting reports began to surface between the FAA and New Mexico Airlines CEO Greg Kahlstorf as to the reasons New Mexico Airlines suddenly stopped flights to and from Los Alamos and the Albuquerque Sunport. Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess sent a notice of termination to Kahlstorf in January.
In an email to his customer service manager at the time, Kahlstorf called Los Alamos a “s—hole”. “I have no interest in discussing Los Alamos with the press. I’m trying to end service to that s—hole effective tomorrow, and they can make their own assumptions about why,” Kahlstorf stated in the email to Cheryl Leong, which he copied to NMA President Gabriel Kimbrell as well as Burgess.
In another email obtained by the Los Alamos Daily Post through a public information request to Los Alamos County at the time, Kahlstorf told Leong, “Don’t waste a lot of time soothing nerves, answering questions or trying to calm anybody down. Let the County handle any anxiety their decisions may create.”
Current reports indicate that New Mexico Airlines has now surrendered its operating certificate, thus ending any further investigation into the airline.