A fake travel agent has been charged with wire fraud following a months-long investigation by the FBI over allegations that he spent $110,000 paid to him for travel services by a university basketball team on his own personal vacations.
Maurice Eugene Smith, 44, from Atlanta, was arrested on Thursday after the case against him was presented to a Virginia court. If found guilty, Smith faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.
The FBI opened their investigation into Smith and his dubious travel agency business in August after the men’s basketball team at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, discovered just hours before they were due to catch a flight to the Bahamas for a week-long competition that the tickets had never been booked.
The team’s administrators had approached a reputable company in June 2023 to discuss the upcoming trip, and this company subcontracted out the details of making all the travel arrangements to Smith and his travel agency business, Eugene Toriko.
Smith went about building a trip using actual flights and hotels in the Bahamas, as well as transportation and team events, including a catamaran trip.
Smith initially quoted the total cost for the 30 people going on the trip as coming in at $149,542, although he later increased the price to $164,336, which included some meals and a profit ‘cushion.’
In multiple communications with the basketball team and the unnamed company, Smith provided details about the flights that he had reserved with American Airlines, as well as accommodation at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar that he had booked.
But after the basketball team promptly paid the required deposits for these services, Smith failed to lock in the flights and hotel accommodation. Both American Airlines and the Grand Hyatt eventually canceled Smith’s tentative reservations.
Just three weeks after receiving the first deposit from the university, Smith allegedly used those funds to pay for a personal trip to Talum, Mexico. And shortly after receiving the second deposit, Smith took a personal trip to Panama City.
Prosecutors allege that Smith kept up the pretense right up to just days before the team was due to travel but suddenly went silent just three days before the tour was due to get underway.
With no flights and hotel, the basketball team was forced to cancel their eagerly anticipated trip to the Bahamas at the last minute.
Within days, the university had called in the FBI and suspicion quickly fell on Smith. In a telephone interview, Smith claimed that an ‘oversight’ and ‘miscommunication’ had led him to fail to pay the deposit for the flights and hotel through a third-party agency, although that company had no knowledge of doing business with Smith.
Thankfully, Smith said that he would be able to claim under his professional liability insurance so the university wouldn’t be left out of pocket, but investigators discovered that he had let the insurance lapse and wasn’t covered as he claimed.
Further digging by the FBI revealed that this wasn’t the first time Smith allegedly defrauded a university for non-existent travel services. In December 2023, a university baseball team used Smith’s Eugene Toriko agency to book flights from Georgia to Louisiana but had to take a coach after discovering that the flights had never been booked.
And in early 2024, the international studies department of another university used Eugene Toriko to book return flights for an overseas trip for the faculty and students. The university didn’t receive the plane tickets until everyone was already on their way to the airport, and when they arrived at their destination, they discovered that Smith had only booked one-way tickets.
It cost the staff and students around $20,000 to get back to the United States. They are yet to receive repayment from Eugene Toriko for the added expense.
