OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The owner of an Omaha event-planning company accused of selling thousands of worthless airline vouchers has filed a lawsuit against four former employees, including those she allegedly bilked.
Patricia Urbanovsky’s lawsuit alleges that four employees either embezzled company funds, misled clients or reported higher sales in order to earn larger commissions. The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in Douglas County District Court, the Omaha World-Herald reported (https://bit.ly/1LAPaaO ).
Urbanovsky is the owner of Creative Creations in Omaha. Authorities say she ran a scheme through her business to sell discounted airline travel vouchers, which turned out to be worthless.
Authorities say the company purchased the vouchers for airline flights at a reduced rate and resold them to the public. But hundreds of customers discovered their vouchers wouldn’t be honored because the company had overbooked flights. Only a limited number of vouchers can be redeemed each month. The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are investigating the sale of the vouchers, which have been the target of about 1,500 complaints to the Better Business Bureau in Omaha.
Urbanovsky is charged with three felony counts of theft, accused of bilking three former employees out of more than $141,000. Prosecutors say she had the employees use their personal credit cards to buy the vouchers when she exceeded her own credit card limits, promising to pay them back. But when she issued them reimbursement checks, they bounced.
Urbanovsky’s attorney, Steve Lefler, said the lawsuit will allow him to question the former employees and get to the bottom of what he believes was a conspiracy by them to dupe Urbanovsky.
Lefler said Urbanovsky was a naive businesswoman who was too trusting of people who worked for her.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
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