A letter sent to Marchenzie Lapointe, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, identifies 78 of the Life at Sea passengers as “Millay victims.” The letter, seen by The Washington Post, said the passengers lost an estimated $16 million as a result of Milley’s actions that amounted to misrepresentation and fraud. This group includes nationals from countries such as the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, and India. Most of the customers were elderly people over 65 years old.
“Significant numbers of residents have literally become homeless due to Millais’ failure to refund passenger fees as promised,” the letter said. “Thanks to the generosity of friends, many are living out of suitcases in motels or spare rooms.”
In a statement to passengers earlier this month, Millay said refunds were delayed due to banking and credit card issues, according to the letter. A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. It is unclear whether Mr. Lapointe’s office will launch an investigation. The passengers’ letter aims to file formal criminal charges and says they have suffered worse than the victims of the failed Fyre Festival in the Bahamas. Organizer Billy McFarland was sentenced to federal prison for wire fraud.
“Not only have they crushed our hopes and dreams and disrupted the course of our lives, they continue to waste our time,” said Shireen Thomas, 58, a passenger and former social services worker. ) told the Post. She said she moved out of her rented home, sold her car and condensed her life into five boxes for her trip. She currently lives with a friend in North Carolina.
Thomas said he made 27 separate transactions with Millay on eight credit cards between June and August 2023, amounting to about $157,000 over three years of travel. (Miray was offering a small discount to customers who paid in advance for three years.) It takes longer to deliver.”
So far, only four passengers have seen their money returned, the letter said.
“The hardest part of it all was the lack of communication and feeling gaslit,” Thomas says. “It would have been a lot easier if they could have come out and said this failed, but they didn’t.”
In March 2023, Miray, a company that usually operates cruises around the Aegean Sea, announced a 1,095-day cruise at the lowest price. $30,000 per year, including lodging, meals, and other accommodations. While the concept wasn’t particularly new, what Miray was offering and the price it advertised was somewhat unusual. (Thomas said the price tags reflected prices for only some double-occupancy rooms, and ultimately weren’t entirely accurate.) Prospective passengers will be asked to board Millay’s ship, the Gemini. I was informed that I would be on board. She said the ship was scheduled to set sail in November.
As the months passed, the passengers paid their deposits, obtained new visas, arranged their lives and prepared to set sail. Several pets have been rehomed. Some houses were sold. Some people poured it into their retirement savings. Meanwhile, Life at Sea’s original management appears to have resigned over the Gemini’s seaworthiness controversy. During this time, most of his communications with passengers took place through webinars with his new Miray executives, including former CEO Kendra Holmes and his COO, Ethem Bayramoglu. In July they announced: found a bigger ship To go on a journey.
In October, passengers, They shipped their belongings to Istanbul or Miami (where the ships were anchored after Turkey). Mirai’s owner, Vedat Ugurul, then announced that the voyage would be postponed until November 11. Many of the passengers had already purchased tickets or were waiting for departure in temporary accommodation in Istanbul. In a letter filed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ugur claimed that financing for the boat purchase was being finalized, but the trip was still in progress.
According to the letter, on November 19, Ugurul announced a complete cancellation of the voyage. Plans to secure a larger ship failed. Mr Millais promised passengers a full refund of the cost of their trip and additional funds to be paid in three installments, with the first payment to be made on December 22 and subsequent payments in January and February.
Milley said in a statement to passengers on January 14 that a dispute over a credit card chargeback has delayed refunds and prevented the company from processing money transfers. Still, passengers allege that the company engages in “serious and repeated misconduct.”,” Marketing a 3-year cruise without owning a ship beginning.
Kara Youssef and her husband Joe are among the few who have seen some of the money they put into Life at Sea return to them. The couple had been living in Turkey for two years at the time the cruise was announced.They used up most of their retirement funds and dug out a significant portion of their savings. He sold both properties he owned in Turkey to fund his trip. Since October 28, they have been living out of three suitcases in a hotel paid for by Millay.
“Our biggest concern right now is that we will soon have nowhere to go,” Youssef told the Post. “We will not be homeless, but we may not be allowed to return to our old lives because we have sold the property we were living in.” [Turkish] During your stay. ”
On Saturday, more than a month after the first repayments were supposed to be deposited into the accounts of all passengers, Youssef was able to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Chief Operating Officer Bayramoglu. He paid her 10,000 yen in cash (12% of the repayment amount). And her husband was paying for the cruise. The rest are expected to arrive by February at the latest, she said.
“I think Mirei made terrible business decisions and terrible communication. But as long as they pay and refund passengers, as far as I’m concerned, I’m fine,” Youssef said. says. “I’m not trying to ruin them by making them pay or anything like that.”.
Not all passengers signed the complaint. George Fox, 67, of Maine, told the Post he was responsible for the money he lost on the cruise. He was always skeptical that it would happen — just as the bank refused to wire $30,000 for deposit to Millay due to a change in management and boats. , he stopped — but he says he doesn’t believe it was the result of intentional deception.
“Everyone who signed up for this knew it was dangerous,” Fox said. After he began to have doubts about the launch, he changed his plans and decided to board the ship in Florida once it safely sailed. “There were a lot of things that came together and didn’t come together and he was just one of those things…I mean, what can I say? It’s a crazy world.”