It takes a certain chutzpah to attempt to scam a government.
But only if you get away with it.
Two travel agencies in Japan tried and failed.
Japanese travel agency group HIS Co said two subsidiaries scammed the government through the Go To Travel subsidised tourism campaign.
It reported that Japan Holiday Travel Co and Miki Tourist Co fraudulently over-reported the number of hotel stays booked as part of the campaign.
Together they received $8.23 million worth of subsidies for hotel stays that didn’t exist.
HIS said the theft was discovered during an internal audit, Travel Mole reports.
Miki Tourist allegedly conspired with hotel operator JHAT Co but Japan Holiday Travel did not take an active role in processing bogus bookings.
HIS CEO Hideo Sawada said Miki Tourist’s president will be fired and HIS will repay the money to the government.
The Go To Travel subsidised tourism campaign covered 50% of travel costs from July 2020 to December 2020, when it was halted due to rising Covid-19 cases.
Image: William Vaccaro Scop.io
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