Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- A travel agent who owned Providence-based Travel Concepts Inc. was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison for defrauding eight airlines and Amtrak out of $571,000 in a bogus ticket-refund scheme.

Frank Serio manipulated a travel industry system to buy tickets at steep discounts and then got refunds at full price, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente's office. He used the money for a personal expenses, including car payments to BMW Financial Services and Inskip Audi.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi also ordered Serio to serve an additional year in community confinement after prison and to make full restitution to the airlines and Amtrak.

Serio pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's office said. He must report to prison on Jan. 5.

Prosecutor Lee H. Vilker said at the plea hearing the government could show that, between 2004 and October 2007, Serio defrauded airlines and Amtrak by buying hundreds of tickets in other people's names -- some real, some made-up. He bought the tickets with either a business or personal credit card through Airlines Reporting Corporation, a ticket-buying facilitator for travel agents.

Serio used fraudulent voucher numbers to buy the tickets at steep discounts -- either bogus voucher numbers or numbers reserved for the carriers' employees and their relatives, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Within days or weeks of a buy, Serio asked for a refund through Airlines Reporting Corporation at the full ticket price.

Serio got refunds adding up to $571,000 from Amtrak, U.S. Airways, British Airways, Delta, American, United, Northwest, Continental, and Royal Jordanian Airlines.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

 Tags  Amtrak crime Providence travel agent U.S. Attorney's office

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