A court in San Diego has sentenced a former crewmember of cruise ship Disney Wonder to 15 months for embezzlement.
Brazilian national Renan Dias Da Rocha Gomes, 32, worked at a shipboard merchandise store on Disney Wonder, and between 2015 and 2017 he made $275,000 in charges on a Disney bank account. Prosecutors said that Gomes then put the money onto gift cards using the store’s VeriFone payment system, using $35,000 to pay for a family vacation to Disney World, including $8,700 for lodging and $26,400 for food, beverages, merchandise and entertainment.
Disney conducted an internal investigation, after which FBI agents greeted the vessel at San Diego pier on October 27th 2017, boarding her to meet with Gomes. He admitted to fraudulently uploading funds onto the cards using the VeriFone system, and said that he had started with small amounts before working his way up to the maximum amount of $1,000 per transaction.
Gomes pled guilty to charges of wire fraud, and he will be deported to Brazil once his prison sentence is complete.