JAMAICA, N.Y. -
An independent travel agent, who more recently was a Transportation
Security Administration screener, was arrested and charged with
fraud in connection with a ticketing scheme that produced more than
$50,000 in debit memos for her host agency.
The former
independent contractor is Laura Chico-Moreira, 37, who specialized
in selling travel to Latin America for an agency here, Florida's
Best Marketing Associates, owned by Maurice Vallejo.
She is being held
pending arraignment.
According to the
charges spelled out for the Queens County criminal court, the agent
sold "full-fare" air tickets to adults but reported and paid for
them as infant fares.
According to the
court papers, which are based in large measure on testimony from
Vallejo, the agency had installed a GDS terminal in Chico-Moreira's
office, where she booked the tickets, which were then printed at
the host agency's location.
The defendant
retrieved tickets booked under her business name, XLJE Tours, for
distribution to clients, the papers say.
According to the
court documents, the contractor booked more than 75 phony
infant-fare tickets between Dec. 2, 2002 and June 15, 2003, and
Grupo Taca was the primary victim. However, Vallejo told the
district attorney's office that the airline is holding his agency
responsible. He said he received debit memos from Grupo Taca
totaling more than $54,000.
A call to the
carrier from one client who asked to change her reservation
triggered an audit of the agency by Grupo Taca and the subsequent
criminal investigation. Until then, no client or airline agent
handling check-in had discovered the inappropriate fare
basis.
Chico-Moreira is
charged with grand larceny, scheming to defraud and falsify
business records (of Grupo Taca) as well as grand larceny for
collecting $4,425 in unemployment benefits during the time she was
an independent agent.
If convicted, she
faces up to 15 years in jail.
Grupo Taca
declined comment, and Vallejo refused to talk to Travel
Weekly.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin
at [email protected].