Travel agent who defrauded George Mason University, other schools sentenced to 13 months in prison

A federal judge in Virginia sentenced a travel agent to 13 years behind bars for defrauding George Mason University, other schools and several people.

From September 2022 through at least last November, Maurice Eugene Smith took the money of customers for travel planning services and, instead of booking their hotels or travel accommodations, used the dollars for his own ends, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a release.

Some of the money paid to Smith’s company, Eugene Toriko LLC, was used for his travel or sports gambling expenses.

Smith also used some payments made to Eugene Toriko to pay back other victims he defrauded. For example, he used money he and his company got from GMU and its foundation to pay back Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia, according to a statement of facts filed in court following Smith’s guilty plea in April.

GMU contracted Eugene Toriko for its basketball team to travel to the Bahamas, while Reinhardt University paid the company for its baseball team to travel to Shreveport, Louisiana.

For GMU, Smith made reservations but paid for nothing. The school had to cancel the Bahamas trip.

For Reinhardt, Smith took the money the school paid him for airline reservations and told the athletic director he didn’t know what happened to the tickets. The school then sent its team to Shreveport via bus.

In addition to those schools and several individuals identified only by their initials in court documents, Smith defrauded Georgia Gwinnett College. He bought tickets to Thailand for members of the school’s international studies department, but bought only one return ticket, according to the statement of facts.

In his plea agreement, Smith agreed to repay $159,755.60 in restitution to the George Mason University Foundation, $19,950.58 to Georgia Gwinnett College and over $43,000 to seven other parties.