Retail Finance Executive of Starboard Cruise Services Embezzles $2.6M
Doral FL Aug 19 2017
From April 2010 through May 2016, Carmen Rodriguez worked in the finance and administration department of Starboard Cruise Services, which operates tax-free and duty-free retail stores aboard cruise ships.
She added her own bank account information to two vendors’ accounts. One of the vendors was a Chinese manufacturer of textiles and the other was a New Jersey corporation that distributed apparel.
The two vendors didn’t do business with Starboard Cruise Services after 2010.
However, Rodriguez created false internal invoices that inflated the price of products purchased by Starboard Cruise Services, often by overstating shipping and handling costs.
In addition, Rodriguez created false internal invoices purporting to reflect product purchases by Starboard Cruise Services.
Rodriguez then fabricated false purchase orders that listed either of the two former vendors as the payee and embezzled about $2.67 million by arranging for electronic automated clearing house payments to be transmitted to her personal bank accounts.
She was hit with two counts of wire fraud that each carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison for her alleged scheme to embezzle funds from LVMH subsidiary Starboard Cruise Services Inc
