Three Accused of More than $2 Million Fraud Targeting Cruise Line

ST. LOUIS - Three people have been accused of defrauding a cruise ship company out of more than $2 million.

Thomas Markwell, 53, and Nathan Boyd, 50, were indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in October with seven counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Joanna Dettman, 50, of St. Louis was indicted on the wire fraud charges.

Markwell, originally from near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, appeared in court Friday. A motion seeking to have Markwell held in jail until trial says he was fired by the cruise line in September of 2023. According to the motion, Markwell was in Argentina when his indictment was filed, did not return as scheduled and was planning to marry an Argentinian citizen. Markwell was arrested in Argentina on an Interpol Red Notice on Feb. 23. Markwell agreed to waive extradition and was surrendered to the United States. The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs secured the arrest and yesterday's extradition of Markwell.

Dettman appeared in court in October and Boyd, of Deschutes County, Oregon, appeared in November. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The indictment says that from June 2021 to September 2023, Markwell misused his position as senior director of events at the cruise line company. Markwell approved numerous fraudulent invoices totaling more than $1 million from a company in the St. Louis area that assists corporate clients with procuring gifts for their employees, customers and business partners, the indictment says. Boyd co-owned the gifting company and Dettman, also known as Joanna St. Gemme, worked for them as a contractor. Boyd and Dettman either inflated legitimate invoices or created fictitious invoices, some of which contained the personal expenses of Markwell, Dettman, Boyd or Markwell's romantic partners. They also issued numerous fraudulent invoices to the cruise line that included their personal expenses and the personal expenses of Markwell's romantic partners that had been charged to the gifting company's corporate credit cards.

Dettman also owned GEM Consulting LLC, which issued $100,000 in fraudulent invoices to the cruise line, the indictment says. Markwell approved GEM as a vendor and approved a fictitious business that was associated with one of his romantic partners, which then billed the cruise line $500,000, the indictment says.

The indictment says that Markwell issued fraudulent invoices totaling $180,000 to the gifting company from a fictitious business associated with another of his romantic partners to get his share of the proceeds.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf is prosecuting the case.