Investigations
The United States Department of Transportation, the regulatory agency overseeing tour operators opened an investigation against his company Mainline Airways in 2003 and took no action.
However, in June 2003 Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly filed the well-publicized state lawsuit against Mainline and Luke Thompson alleging that the company would not perform the travel services paid for by customers that were to be executed beginning only 3 weeks after the suit was filed, and Reilly expressed a general concern that the company was nothing more than a fraud and Thompson was laundering large amounts of cash from the company. It was later revealed that the funds were actually protected in a company escrow bank account containing all monies received from customers to hold their reservations. The dollar amount held was never released to the public, but thought to be between $200,000 and $5 million.
Reilly's lawsuit had sought to shut down the company, obtain refunds for all customers, and $605,000 in punitive damages from both Mainline and Thompson, but it was partially withdrawn in September 2004 and Thompson was not forced to pay a fine or damages.
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