Man Admits Stealing $8 Million Worth of Tickets From Airports
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A 22-year-old Frenchman has admitted posing as an airline employee and stealing more than $8 million worth of travel tickets, the U.S. attorney’s office announced.
Karim Olivier Marrawi pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to one count of possessing 23 forged airline tickets. He faces sentencing March 8 and could get a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to court documents, Marrawi used false identification and company uniforms to steal more than 1,600 tickets, most of them blank ones stored at airports in Miami and Los Angeles.
Prosecutors said he also was able to get access to Air France computers by posing as a company employee.
U.S. Atty. Helen Fahey said Marrawi used electronic communications to bypass normal security systems by presenting himself as a company official.
Marrawi’s lawyer, Oliver Long, described his client as a student participating in a “college prank.”
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