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 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
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 …