The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have confirmed that federal charges have been filed against a former employee of Starboard Cruise Services in connection with an alleged $2.6m attempted ’wire fraud’.

 

The US attorney’s office says charges have been brought against Carmen Silvia Rodriguez on two alleged counts of wire fraud ‘in connection with a fraud scheme to steal over $2.6m from her employer’. If found guilty she could theoretically face a maximum term of 20 years in prison.

 

THE ALLEGED WIRE FRAUD AMOUNTS TO $2.6M…

According to the formal US Attorney’s Office filing of charges, Rodriguez was employed by Starboard Cruise Services (SCS) between April 2010 to May 2016 – the Florida-based company operating duty and tax free shops onboard cruise ships.

 

The formal allegation made against her by the Florida Court and the FBI reads as follows: “During the course of the alleged scheme, Rodriguez worked in SCS’s Finance and Administration Department. There, Rodriguez accessed company records related to two former SCS vendors (“SCS Vendor #1” and “SCS Vendor #2”) and added her own bank account information to the two vendors’ accounts. SCS Vendor #1 and SCS Vendor #2 did not do business with SCS after 2010.

 

“The information further alleges that between April 1, 2010, and May 31, 2016, Rodriguez created false internal invoices that inflated the price of certain products purchased by SCS, often by overstating the shipping and handling costs associated with SCS’s purchase of the products.

 

“Rodriguez also created false internal invoices that purportedly reflected the purchase of certain products by SCS. For each of the inflated and/or false internal invoices, Rodriguez created a false purchase order, listing either SCS Vendor #1 or SCS Vendor #2 as the payee, for the difference between the money actually owed to the vendor, if any, and the inflated and/or false invoice price.

 

“By creating the false purchase orders and making them payable to SCS Vendor #1 and/or SCS Vendor #2, Rodriguez caused approximately $2,669,372.30 in electronic Automated Clearinghouse payments to be transmitted from SCS’s bank account to Rodriguez’s personal bank accounts.”

 

FBI INVESTIGATION ‘COMMENDED’ IN COURT

Rodriguez made her initial appearance to face the charges in the Federal court on August 16, 2017 before US Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres.

 

Benjamin G. Greenberg, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida commended the investigative efforts of the FBI’s Miami office in this case, which is now set to be prosecuted by the Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Browne. A date for the case to be heard in full has yet to be set.

 

[Starboard Cruise Services has been part of the LVMH Group since 2000. The full wording of the alleged charges can be found at the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida at the following web address: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/hialeah-woman-charged-embezzling-over-26-million-local-business –Ed].