Ex-OpenTable Employee Charged With Fraud, Fake Reservations

A man is accused of causing thousands of dollars lost in restaurant sales by a reservation scheme, according to reports. Steven Addison is being charge with of one count of wire fraud for the scam.

Between November 2017 and February 2018, Addison is alleged to have used fake names, phone numbers and email addresses, using Reserve, an app for restaurant reservations and reviews. The Chicago Sun-Times reported he worked at OpenTable at the time.

He's alleged to have booked tables during busy nights knowing restaurants “would suffer financial losses when no diners showed up to claim the reservation,” prosecutors say, according to the Sun-Times.

See more: Fake Reservations At Chicago Restaurants Blamed On App Staffer

He used such names as “Hans Gruber” and “Jimmy Smits,” prosecutors say, to make the fake reservations. They added the scheme left many hundreds of restaurant seats empty.

“Addison’s scheme intended to demonstrate to Chicago restaurants that Reserve had an inferior reservation system,” the Sun Times reported prosecutors as saying.

The owner of Tavern at the Park, a Loop restaurant owned by Peter de Castro, took a five-percent hit in sales in December as a results of the Reserve no-shows, de Castro told the Sun-Times.

"This behavior goes against everything we stand for," wrote OpenTable CEO Christa Quarles, who said the company is committed to raising awareness of the detrimental effect no-shows have on restaurants.

"Our culture and values at OpenTable are founded on the principle of integrity, and that absolutely encompasses how we embrace competition in the marketplace. The only reason we exist is to help restaurants grow. When they succeed, we succeed," Quarles said.

Addison is expected to appear in court for arraignment Tuesday morning.

See the Chicago Sun-Times for more.

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