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Mar 24, 2008 10:24 pm US/Central
Victims Of Nationwide Cruise Scam Speak Out
Two McKinney Travel Agents Sentenced
Reporting
Jack Fink
McKINNEY (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
It was supposed to be a dream cruise, but it turned out to be a nationwide scam. Now, two McKinney travel agents are headed to federal prison.
The scam ensnared people across the country. For 10 years, June Littleford of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania saved $13,000 to take 16 members of her family on a vacation.
"It was going to be a once in a lifetime family cruise," she said.
Boston resident Ava Glaser and her fiancée were planning their first cruise.
"Sounded like a fabulous deal," she said. "We were very much looking forward to it. It was the kind of vacation we had never done before."
But their dreams of a cruise sank one week before their scheduled trip.
Glaser lost nearly $3,000 and Littleford lost almost all of her $13,000.
"I felt sick… sick to my stomach. I was really upset," Littleford said. "Especially these four little ones. How could I tell them Nanny and Pop-Pop aren't taking you on a cruise?"
In all, there were 90 victims who lost about $200,000.
Federal prosecutors accused the victims' McKinney travel agents of making it all up.
Last August, a jury found 28-year-old Sonja Ritz and her 52-year-old mother, Carol Ribaudo, guilty. Monday, they returned to court to be sentenced.
"They took in individual payments by way of credit card or checks in order to book a cruise for them. It was our position there was never any cruise. There was a scheme to defraud," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Shamoil Shipchandler.
In court, Ritz and Ribaudo never apologized. Ribaudo told the judge she never intended to defraud her clients and that this was simply a business deal gone bad. The judge rejected that notion.
The judge announced in court on Monday that Ribaudo told a probation officer that she and her daughter had no intention of serving any time in prison.
The judge became concerned that the pair would flee and ordered the mother and daughter into custody Monday.
Ribaudo was sentenced to nearly five years in prison and her daughter was sentence to just over three years. They also must repay their victims.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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