Amtrak Worker Sentenced in Federal Court in Louisiana for Wire Fraud in Connection with a Vacation Scam

Louisiana – An Amtrak worker was sentenced in federal court in Louisiana to six months in prison for wire fraud after scamming almost 40 people out of $23,000 to $26,000 for a fake vacation.

On Monday, January 9, 2023, U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that Kenya Butler-Small was sentenced on January 5, 2023, for conduct alleged to have occurred while she was employed by Amtrak as an On-board Services Train Attendant.

Butler-Small was sentenced to six months in prison for each of the two wire fraud crimes to which she earlier pled guilty, according to U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance. Butler-Small was also sentenced to two years of supervised release following her incarceration, with the first six months consisting of home detention with location monitoring and a mandatory $100 special assessment fee for each offense. Judge Vance also ordered Butler-Small to pay restitution to the victims.

Butler-Small enlisted the help of almost 40 victims to purchase tickets for a phony trip from New Orleans to New York City. Butler-Small informed the victims that she had arranged round-trip Amtrak train travel as well as activities such as shows and museum tours for the vacation. Butler-Small had not booked the Amtrak tickets or the events. As the trip’s departure date approached, Butler-Small informed the victims, from whom she had stolen a total of around $23,000 to $26,000, that Amtrak had canceled the trip due to an incident in which one of the trip’s passengers assaulted an Amtrak employee and threatened to blow up a train. In reality, no such incident occurred.

Butler-Small allegedly filed false claims for sick leave with the Railroad Retirement Board, a government entity that administers benefits to Amtrak personnel. Butler-Small said she was too sick to work when she was actually working another job. As a result, the government paid Butler-Small $4,679 in sick payments for days she falsely claimed she was unable to work.

The Amtrak Office of Inspector General and the Railroad Retirement Board Office of Inspector General investigated this case. The prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chandra Menon.