FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — An Atlanta man has been arrested and charged with fraud after George Mason University’s men’s basketball team was forced to cancel a trip to the Bahamas earlier this year after it paid for travel that was never actually booked.
Charges against Maurice Smith, 44, the CEO of the Eugene Toriko travel agency, were unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.
According to an FBI affidavit, George Mason paid nearly $160,000 for a team trip to the Bahamas in August that was to include a pair of exhibition games and sightseeing excursions like a catamaran tour.
The money was paid to a sports marketing firm that subcontracted with Smith’s company, according to the affidavit.
The team canceled the trip a day before the scheduled departure after learning all of its travel reservations had lapsed for nonpayment.
The FBI affidavit alleges that Smith ran his travel company like a Ponzi scheme and that the money the Virginia university paid was used by Smith on personal expenses and to provide partial refunds to previous clients who similarly had their travel plans canceled.
An email to Smith’s company was not returned Friday. Court records do not list an attorney.
The affidavit states that Smith wrote a letter to the university in September attributing the cancellation to a “logistical error” and saying that he was “committed to learning from this experience and implementing stricter controls and procedures to prevent any future occurrences.”
Prosecutors say the George Mason University Foundation has still not been reimbursed.
George Mason, located in Fairfax, Virginia, and a member of the Atlantic 10 conference, is currently 7-3.
