Euro Villas Owner Charged With Defrauding Agents
by Robin Amster /The owner of Euro Villas Ltd., a Florida-based villa rental company, has been charged with operating a scheme to defraud travel agents out of more than $20,000.
Officers with the Florida Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement arrested Cornel Scor of Naples on July 30 and charged him on three counts – grand theft, second degree; a scheme to defraud, and the unregistered sale of travel.
The arrest comes a year after Travel Market Report published a story detailing agents’ allegations that Scor promoted fam trips to Europe, received full payment from the agents and their travel companions, then cancelled the trips and failed to refund the money.
Scor, 61, was released after posting $45,000 in bail and is scheduled to plead to the charges in court on Aug. 25.
Agents to whom Scor owes money said they were thrilled at his arrest, although they realize they may never recoup their money. (See sidebar).
Agent complaints
The Florida Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement has been investigating Scor for about a year, Dan Hopkins, an investigator with the agency, told Travel Market Report.
The Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement is the enforcement arm of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which licenses travel sellers in the state.
Florida’s agriculture department has received numerous complaints from agents in Louisiana, New Jersey and New York.
Hopkins said Scor is the sole proprietor and the sole employee of Euro Villas, although agents last year told Travel Market Report that Scor had referred their requests for refunds to Harold Maas. At the time, Maas was listed as president and principal of Euro Villas on the Better Business Bureau’s website.
‘Knew it was wrong’
Scor, meanwhile, was “forthcoming” in his conversation with investigators, Hopkins said.
“I asked him, ‘Did you try to pay back [the agents]?’ He said no.
“I asked him, ‘Did you intend to pay them back?’ He said no. He also said he knew what he was doing was wrong,” Hopkins said.
“‘Yeah, I’ve been ripped off before; I know what it feels like,’ he told me,” Hopkins said.
Scor has been running a travel business for some 30 years without a Florida travel sellers’ license, according to Hopkins. He apparently operated under names other than Euro Villas, which was established in 2008.
Scor stopped doing business under the Euro Villas name when he ran into trouble with persistent claims from agents demanding their money back.
He formed another company called European American Travel in August of 2013, according to Hopkins.
More than $20,000 owed
Scor told Hopkins he owes about $25,000 to 20 agents, “which is fairly accurate,” Hopkins said.
Carla Keneson of the Travel Machine in Lafayette, La., said Scor owes her and five other agents a total of $22,536. That total includes payments made by guests who were to accompany the agents on the fam trips offered by Scor’s Euro Villas.
The figure doesn’t include other more recent claims, said Keneson.
Penalties
If convicted, Scor faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000 for the grand theft 2 charge, which is considered a second degree felony. A scheme to defraud is also considered a second degree felony.
There are civil fines of up to $5,000 for each violation in connection with failing to register as a travel seller.