Travel Agency Charged With Bilking Customers

A Seattle travel agent has been charged with bilking customers out of $245,938 in a scam similar to a Ponzi scheme, King County prosecutors said.

Dolores Saas, who is also known as Dolores Wyman, was charged Wednesday with 61 counts of theft from 93 would-be travelers in 1992 and 1993.

Prosecutors say she worked her scheme by soliciting deposits from clients then using the money to pay the travel expenses of those who had booked trips earlier. Prosecutors said she used the deposits from earlier clients for her personal use.

Saas, whose age is listed as both 64 and 74 in different court documents, purchased a travel agency, Moment’s Notice, in 1990 for $69,450.

From the start, Saas failed to keep travelers’ funds in a separate account as required by state law, deputy prosecutor Lynn Prenhuber said.

Instead, Saas deposited the money into a checking account she used for personal expenses and to make the $1,500-a-month payments to buy the business, Prenhuber said.