George Mason was supposed to take a five-day trip to the Bahamas over the summer to play college basketball against multiple local Bahamian teams prior to the start of the regular season. However, the Patriots quickly discovered that it was a scam after flying approximately 950 miles for no reason.
Now five months later, an Atlanta-based travel agent has been arrested on charges of wire fraud for his role in the operation.
It has become commonplace in college basketball for programs to go international during the summer and play tune-up scrimmages against the national teams of foreign nations or local clubs. George Mason embarked on a similar preseason tour at the beginning of August. They packed their bags, hopped on a plane and flew approximately three hours south. Upon arrival to the Bahamas, the team learned that no hotels had been booked. Not great.
The bigger issue was that there were no actual opponents to play. Games had not been scheduled. Even if the Patriots booked last-minute accommodations, they didn’t have any reason to stay in the Bahamas.
George Mason re-packed the plane and flew home.
The VII Group handled the logistics of the trip. It advertises itself as “a premier full-service, Black-owned, sports event marketing firm.”
Although that may still be true, the agency has at least one bad egg. Federal prosecutors arrested 44-year-old Maurice Eugene Smith on Thursday afternoon after he allegedly “took payment for travel services he never provided.” Full details of his fraudulent behavior are outlined in the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s press release and corresponding FBI affidavit but the gist is pretty simple.
The investigation to date has shown that Smith orchestrated a type of Ponzi scheme, whereby he defrauded individuals who paid him and Eugene Toriko LLC for travel services that he never provided. Instead, Smith utilized the money that he received for services to enrich himself and to pay back earlier victims of the fraud scheme.
— FBI
George Mason paid out more than $109,000 to Smith for transportation, hotel accommodations, recreational activities like a catamaran tour and some meals for 30 people. Smith supposedly reserved a block of rooms for the men’s basketball team at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar.
That never happened. George Mason had nowhere to stay and nowhere to play so Smith faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted on the wide fraud charge.
The post Atlanta Travel Agent Arrested For Scamming College Basketball Team With Fake Trip To The Bahamas appeared first on BroBible.
Atlanta Travel Agent Arrested For Scamming College Basketball Team With Fake Trip To The Bahamas
Pinoy Human Rights
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