ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995 TAG: 9512260053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
A 22-year-old French man has admitted posing as an airline employee and stealing more than $8 million worth of travel tickets, the U.S. attorney's office announced.
Karim Olivier Marrawi pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria Thursday to one count of possessing 23 forged airline tickets. He faces sentencing March 8 and could get a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to court documents, Marrawi used false identification and company uniforms to steal more than 1,600 tickets, most of them blank ones stored at airports in Miami and Los Angeles.
Prosecutors said Friday that he also was able to get access to Air France computers by posing as a company employee. U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey said Marrawi used a series of electronic communications to bypass normal security systems by presenting himself as a company official.
He was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport this summer, after airline officials learned of the scam.
Marrawi's lawyer, Oliver Long of Fairfax, described his client as a student participating in a ``college prank.'' He also said Marrawi had no idea the tickets were worth millions of dollars.
Marrawi lived in Boulogne-sur-Mer, a coastal town along the English Channel.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB