Amtrak train attendant ripped off customers with bogus excursion to NYC, feds say
A few days before a group of 40 people were set to travel by train from New Orleans to New York City for an all-inclusive trip, a bomb threat forced Amtrak to cancel.
But the trip was a sham, prosecutors said, and so was the bomb threat.
Kenya Butler-Small, a former on-board services attendant for Amtrak, is accused of defrauding the passengers out of thousands of dollars for a fake vacation that included round-trip train tickets and activity passes while they were in New York.
Butler-Small was charged Dec. 21 with two counts of wire fraud related to the alleged scam and a second scheme in which prosecutors said she lied to get sick benefits.
A public defender representing Butler-Small did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Monday, Dec. 27.
According to a bill of information filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana, the trip to New York City was scheduled for June 2019. As part of the alleged scam, Butler-Small convinced more than 40 individuals to sign up and charged them between $250 and $425, prosecutors said.
She marketed it as a charter trip that included round-trip travel between New Orleans and New York City as well as tickets to museums and shows during the stay, court documents state.
The train was reportedly slated to leave New Orleans at midnight on June 21, 2019, and arrive in the city the following day. Prosecutors said Butler-Smith even created a Facebook page for the trip.
Just before they were scheduled to leave, she posted that Amtrak had canceled the excursion following an alleged incident with a passenger on the upcoming trip. Butler-Smith said the passenger assaulted an Amtrak employee on June 8, 2019, after requesting to see her assigned room for the trip, then threatened to bomb the train and was subsequently arrested.
Butler-Smith told all of the would-be passengers she was “fighting to get the trip restored or the passengers’ money returned to them,” court filings state.
Prosecutors said she ultimately succeeded in stealing between $23,000 and $26,000 from victims who believed the trip was real.
Investigators later discovered Butler-Smith also defrauded the Railroad Retirement Board in 2017.
According to court documents, she claimed to be ill and unable to work between September and December 2017. Prosecutors said Butler-Smith collected $4,679 in Sick Insurance benefits from the board during that time while actually working for a health care provider.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 5, court filings show.
If convicted, Butler-Smith faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and a fine of up to $250,000.
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Amtrak train attendant ripped off customers with bogus excursion to NYC, feds say."
