FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Former Employee of Charter Bus Company Sentenced to Prison
For Stealing over $1 million in Amusement Park Tickets from Employer
Used Company Credit Card to Buy and Misappropriate over 36,000 Tickets
To Dorney Park and Six Flags Great Adventure
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced that a Staten Island woman was sentenced to one to three years in state prison today, following her guilty plea to first-degree grand larceny last month for stealing amusement park tickets valued at over $1 million from her employer, a Red Hook-based charter bus company. The defendant used the company credit card to purchase tickets that were later redeemed at the parks but unconnected to any company offerings.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant was an unscrupulous employee who used her position of trust to steal more than $1 million in property from her employer. Losses such as this can be devastating to small businesses, which are integral to our communities in Brooklyn. Today’s prison term holds her accountable.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Rosemarie Bader, 51, of Staten Island. The defendant was sentenced today to one to three years in prison by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun, who signed a judgment order directing the defendant to pay restitution in the amount of $1,000,533.00 to Best Trails & Travel. The defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny last month.
The District Attorney said that, according to the indictment, the defendant worked for Best Trails and Travel Corporation (BTTC), a charter bus company located at 5 Sigourney Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. BTTC offers private and corporate charter bus packages to a variety of locations, including regional amusement parks and casinos and often including admission to the destinations. The defendant, a 16-year employee of the company, was most recently employed as the Sales Director – a role in which she alone managed and coordinated the various amusement park trip packages offered by BTTC to its clientele: She ordered the tickets from the amusement parks, took delivery of the tickets, secured the tickets in a safe to which she alone had access, placed bus dispatch orders and distributed the appropriate number of theme park tickets to the bus drivers and trip leaders. The defendant was authorized to use BTTC’s American Express credit card to pay for the theme park tickets for the packages.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, between approximately January 2014 and November 2016, the defendant used the BTTC credit card to over-order tickets to two of the company’s destinations, Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey and Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, using the card to pay for over 36,000 tickets that were unconnected to any BTTC bus package but were redeemed at the parks. The defendant took delivery of the tickets by intercepting UPS and Federal Express deliveries and storing the tickets in a personal safe under her desk to which only she had access. The vast majority of the tickets the defendant over-ordered and possessed were never used to fulfill BTTC’s bus-and-ticket packages, nor were the unused and unauthorized tickets returned to the amusement parks for refund, as was the company’s usual practice. Rather, the defendant kept those tickets for her own use without authorization of BTTC.
The defendant’s scheme was discovered in 2016 when an accounting by her employer revealed company ticket orders to Dorney Park and Six Flags Great Adventure far exceeding the actual bus seats available to the parks through company-run trips during applicable time periods. In total, between approximately January 2014 and November 2016, the defendant allegedly used the BTTC American Express credit card to purchase 23,136 tickets to Dorney Park and 13,102 tickets to Six Flags Great Adventure that were redeemed at the parks, according to the investigation, but were unconnected to any BTTC trips. Combined, based upon the average cost of the tickets misappropriated by the defendant, she stole at least $1,000,533 worth of tickets from the company. The defendant’s employment was terminated in October 2016.
The case was investigated by Supervising Detective Investigator Michael Seminara and Detective Investigator Jacqueline Klapak, both of the District Attorney’s Investigations Bureau, under the overall supervision of Chief Investigator Joseph Piraino.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Deidre Moskowitz, of the District Attorney’s Frauds Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, Deputy Chief of the Investigations Division, and Assistant District Attorney Mark Feldman, Senior Executive for Investigations and Crime Strategies.
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