A woman resident in MiamiFlorida, was arrested and accused of allegedly running a fraudulent travel agency that sold fake plane tickets to Cuba and Nicaragua, a scam that authorities estimate to amount to about $119,000, local media reported Friday.
Now, María Van-Caneghem, 46, faces a total of 25 charges for the crimes of “greater robbery and organized fraud”, among others, the channel collected 6 South Florida.
According to the indictment, Van-Caneghem contacted victims through various Facebook groups seeking to purchase plane tickets to travel to Cuba and Nicaragua through “a fake travel agency called Hello Cuba Travel.”
According to Miami-Dade police, Maria Van-Caneghem swindled a person out of multiple tickets from Cuba to Miami for more than $40,000. When the victim’s relatives arrived at the Havana airport, they were told that they were false. https://t.co/qOUc3lRiv2
– Univision 23 Miami (@Univision23) July 29, 2022
Last May, the defendant met with multiple buyers and collected about $119,000 in cash from three groups of victims of the scam.
The relatives of the victims, adds the aforementioned media, approached the airports of Miami and Havana to discover with surprise that the plane tickets were false and had no validity.
The victims later met with police officers and identified Van-Caneghem in photos as the suspected fraudster.
The investigation led police to the arrest of Van-Caneghem, who told officers he had returned some of the swindled money to several of the victims, but denied selling counterfeit bills to others who claimed so.
A judge set bail at $69,000 for the woman, who remains under arrest.
