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Ex-Customs Agent Indicted in Embezzlement

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Times Staff Writer

A former U.S. Customs supervisor was indicted Tuesday on charges of embezzling cash and checks collected from more than 10,000 passengers at Los Angeles International Airport.

Betty J. Jones, 38, is accused of stealing an estimated $840,000 collected at the Tom Bradley International Terminal during 1986 and 1987, using the proceeds to buy fur coats and fly her friends to Las Vegas on gambling vacations.

U.S. Atty. Robert Bonner called it “the largest theft ever” of import duties uncovered in Southern California.

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Federal prosecutors said customs employees never questioned Jones about her expenditures, even when she would take 20 to 25 fellow workers to lunch and pick up the tab.

“She was in a position of trust, and she violated that trust,” said William Green, assistant customs commissioner for internal affairs in Washington. “We did catch her through our system, eventually. But it was quite a bit of money.”

Large Collections

Customs officials said an estimated $12 million in import duties, fees and penalties is collected annually at the airport. Nationwide, the agency takes in about $16 billion a year.

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“Customs is in kind of a unique position, because we enforce not only our own laws, but also those of 40 other different government agencies. So unfortunately, if an employee wanted to go bad, they could go bad in any number of different ways,” said customs spokeswoman Maryanne Noonan.

Jones, a Los Angeles mother of three who earned $22,470 as a supervisory customs aide, had worked at the agency for about six years when evidence of the thefts was first uncovered, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Maurice Leiter, who is prosecuting the case.

She was promoted to supervisor--a $31,000-a-year post--in 1986, and became responsible for collecting cash and checks from the airport vault, verifying cashiers’ accounting records and arranging to have the money deposited in the bank.

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In some cases, according to the indictment, Jones altered cashiers’ records to make it look as though less cash had been collected. And on at least 14 occasions, Jones destroyed the paper work and pocketed the cash, the indictment says.

Prosecutors said there is no evidence that Jones attempted to cash any of the personal checks or travelers’ checks. But she is accused of converting cash receipts, totaling well over $340,000, to her own use.

The preliminary investigation began in the spring of 1987, when a passenger contacted the Customs Service to find out why the check he had written for import duties more than a year earlier had never been cashed.

Took Friends on Junkets

The investigation focused on Jones, Leiter said, after she suddenly appeared to have more money than she ever had before. She installed a patio and new carpeting in the house she rented in the Fairfax District. She invited friends to join her on junkets to Las Vegas, footing the bill for their airline tickets, meals and hotel rooms.

Jones frequently paid friends’ air fare from San Francisco, and put them up in hotel rooms. She bought television sets, fur coats, videocassette recorders, jewelry and new clothes.

When other workers began to wonder about her good fortune, Leiter said, Jones said she had received “some insurance settlements” and had won some money gambling in Las Vegas.

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“To our knowledge, that was not seriously questioned,” the prosecutor said.

Declared Bankruptcy

Jones, who was transferred to another job and declared bankruptcy within a few months, was fired in September.

Although officials believe that Jones pocketed about $343,000 of the missing money, the indictment charges her with theft of the entire $840,000 in cash, checks and travelers checks because that amount was lost to the government, Leiter said.

Customs officials are attempting to go back through old passenger declaration forms to request new duty payments from those whose checks were destroyed.

Jones appeared before a federal magistrate late Tuesday and was ordered held pending deposit of a $25,000 secured bond. If convicted on all 21 embezzlement counts, she faces a maximum of 210 years in prison and a $2.5-million fine.

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