Matthew Harald Schumacher, 44, the proprietor of two host companies in Waseca, Minn., has been charged with four counts of wire fraud for allegedly dishonest his brokers out of almost $500,000 in fee funds.
Schumacher is the proprietor of Journey Troops LLC and Trip Agent Nation LLP. He allegedly defrauded 36 journey brokers, misappropriating not less than $484,000 in fee funds owed to them, in keeping with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the District of Minnesota https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/owner-waseca-travel-agency-charged-defrauding-travel-agents-nationwide-nearly-500000.
“Schumacher tried to retain his journey brokers’ cash and to lull them right into a false sense of safety by, amongst different issues, offering the journey brokers with partial funds and by giving them materially false and fraudulent info,” the workplace stated in a information launch.
He allegedly deposited not less than $160,000 into a private account, utilizing $150,000 for his personal journey bills for journeys to Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Alaska and Europe, and withdrew not less than $33,000 in money, shopping for round $3,117 price of electronics at Finest Purchase and making funds for private bills like restaurant payments, mortgage funds and automobile funds.
Schumacher was indicted following an FBI investigation. The case is being prosecuted by U.S. legal professional Matthew Ebert. Schumacher is anticipated to make an preliminary look at U.S. District Court docket in Minneapolis on Jan. 4 earlier than decide Tony Leung.
Journey Troops was based in 2015. On the time, Schumacher told Travel Weekly he was intentionally maintaining his ranks of advisors small, lower than 300. He didn’t plan to cost charges on high of the everyday month-to-month charges. He stated, “I’ve talked with a ton of brokers and have gotten plenty of suggestions. All of them have the identical points. One just isn’t being nickeled-and-dimed [by their host agency].”
An electronic mail to Schumacher was unable to be delivered. A quantity listed for Journey Troops had been disconnected as of Thursday morning, and the host company’s web site seemed to be down.
