ORLANDO, Fla. _ A Disney Cruise Line employee is accused of embezzling about $275,000 from the ship where he worked and then using some of the money to take his family on a lavish Disney World vacation, federal court records show.
Renan Dias Da Rocha Gomes was charged with wire fraud from allegations stemming from his job at merchandise stores on board the cruise ship Disney Wonder from October 2015 to last week, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court's Southern District of California.
He embezzled the funds on gift cards with the VeriFone payment system, using his identity and another person's to gain access, said a probable cause statement from FBI Special Agent Joyce Deniz that was in the court file.
This spring, Gomes took his family on a two-week $35,000 vacation to Disney World with the gift cards, the statement said _ he spent $26,400 for food, drinks, merchandise and entertainment as well as $8,700 on lodging.
Last week, FBI agents boarded the Wonder when it docked in San Diego and confronted Gomes, who admitted to taking the money, court documents said.
"Gomes further admitted that he began by embezzling approximately $40 and realized that nothing happened to him," the probable cause statement said. "He immediately thereafter began loading the limit amount of $1,000 onto multiple gift cards while working on the ship."
He was arrested and transported to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego.
The Disney Wonder, a 2,713-passenger ship, launched in 1999.
