Sunday, August 12, 2007

From the crime doesn't pay department:

A few months ago in CND we reported on an administrative assistant at a cruise line who had the authority to issue free tickets for legitimate company-related reasons. When she took one of those free trips herself, the cruise line discovered she had issued more than 200 free tickets over a period of time and alleged that that she then sold them to family and friends at a discounted price keeping the money for herself. When she went to court, in a plea bargain she pleaded guilty to several counts and received a sentence of 21 months in prison and agreed to reimburse Royal Caribbean more than $377,000.

The Miami Herald reports that the woman has now begun to serve her prison sentence. An interesting sidelight in the article is that more than $600,000 was seized from her bank account. The police only got $240,000, but the IRS glommed onto all the rest. Apparently, the IRS doesn't care if the income was legal or not; they want the tax on it. She ought to be glad she lives in Florida, because they don't have a state income tax.

Note: Link is valid at time of publication.