It’s one thing to cheat Disney, but it’s another to steal money from members of our military and veterans. An accountant working within Walt Disney World property stole nearly $200k from people vacationing at one specific resort.
At first, the Fox 35 Orlando story sounded like someone at the Walt Disney Company was responsible for the fraud, but it turned out to be a government employee. Elizabeth Carpenter was working for Shades of Green, which falls within Disney’s boundaries in Orlando. The location is known as an AFCR or Armed Forces Recreation Center.
According to court documents, Shades of Green “resorts provide affordable vacation opportunities to U.S. Service Members and their families.” Carpenter’s position as an accountant tech at the resort gave her access to sensitive data, including guest accounts.
The Department of Defense accounting system allowed the alleged thief to “access guest accounts to refund a portion of guests’ room payments to the defendant’s personal credit card accounts.” This scheme resulted in the accused accountant pilfering money from 652 accounts.
The government is accusing Carpenter of siphoning $183,000 from specific accounts. Allegedly, she singled out certain accounts with “multiple, completed stays, and she applied the refunds to various credit cards issued to her and her husband.”
This disgusting act is said to have occurred between July 2022 and March of this year. The amount of money she was accused of stealing gradually increased as time passed, which may have triggered an investigation. Greed always gets you in the end.
The substantial amount stolen carries a sentence of up to a decade behind bars, a fine of $250k, and repayment of the amount she allegedly stole. Rather than duking it out in court, Carpenter entered a guilty plea to a single count: theft of government property.
The last time we heard about someone stealing this much from within Walt Disney World was when a guest experience coordinator lifted $100k back in 2020.
[Source: Fox 35 Orlando]
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