True Crime
BREAKING
Charleston Travel Agent Charged With Fraud
Michelle Pauley-LaMaster, 47, was arrested Nov. 11 after customers said they paid LaMaster Travel LLP for trips they never received. Kanawha County records list 32 felony counts and 4 misdemeanor counts.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
These are complaints, not findings. The court summaries list 36 counts, with cash bonds of $40,000 and $10,000, after State Police announced 32 charges and a $500,000 bond. Nov. 20 is a preliminary hearing, not a trial.
Michelle Pauley-LaMaster, 47, of Charleston, was arrested Wednesday, Nov. 11, in a fraud investigation of LaMaster Travel LLP, the agency she owns. Court records list her as Michelle Lynn Pauley-LeMaster.
Senior Trooper Z.M. Lewis of the West Virginia State Police opened the case on Oct. 29 after reports about customer payments and unauthorized card charges. The criminal complaint describes customers who paid for vacation packages to Aruba, Jamaica, and Norway and never received booking confirmations. It describes a Disney customer who reported more than $6,000 in unauthorized charges, and a worthless check written toward a refund. The investigation remains open.
The felony case, filed Nov. 10, lists 32 counts dated on or about Sept. 16. They are seven counts of fraudulent schemes, eight of obtaining a signature by false pretenses, 14 of possessing a counterfeit or unauthorized access device, and one each of grand larceny, computer fraud, and obtaining property with a worthless check. A separate misdemeanor case lists four counts: two of fraudulent schemes and two of obtaining money or property by false pretenses.
Magistrate Court summaries set a $40,000 cash bond on the felony case and a $10,000 cash bond on the misdemeanor case. Neither bond had been posted on the Nov. 13 summaries, and the court had ordered her jailed. State Police had announced a $500,000 cash bond. Both cases are set for preliminary hearings on Nov. 20 before Magistrate Delbert J. Roush.
Michelle Pauley-LaMaster is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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