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Vantage Travel is bankrupt. Here’s what customers need to know

Michelle Couch-Friedman

Consumer reporter and ombudsman

July 16, 2023

Vantage Deluxe World Travel finally pulled the plug on itself and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 29. This move was no surprise to anyone following the troubling situation at the once well-respected tour operator. 

What did come as a surprise was the true debt the company amassed before increasing negative publicity about its operations forced it to shut down. The legal team of Vantage Travel revealed that shocking figure in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proposal.

All told, Vantage Travel owes customers, vendors, contractors, and other creditors over 170 million dollars.

The value of the assets of the company is a mere fraction of that number. 

Vantage Travel’s legal team says the company’s primary asset is its customer database, which it’s hoping to sell. But that list contains disgruntled and distraught would-be travelers, to whom Vantage collectively owes nearly 110 million dollars. 

With figures like those in the bankruptcy proposal, it’s hard to imagine the customer list of Vantage Travel holds any value. But apparently it does.  

In the follow-up bankruptcy hearing on July 5, which I attended via Zoom, not one but two companies stepped forward in the courtroom to express a desire to buy the remnants of Vantage Deluxe World Travel for one million dollars.

Today, thousands of Vantage Travel customers want to know what all this means. They’ve been waiting for months and, in many cases, years for promised refunds. Those refunds, if the bankruptcy court approves the current proposal, will likely never materialize.

If you’re one of those thousands of Vantage Travel customers , here’s what you need to know. 

What should Vantage Travel customers do right now ?

According to court records, the database Vantage intends to sell to United Travel Pte. Ltd includes customers’ credit card information and passport numbers, among other personal details.

Update: During the sale auction held on Aug. 7 and 8, 2023, Pacific Travel Partners , a subsidiary of Aurora Expeditions, won the bidding. On Aug. 14, 2023, Judge Janet Bostwick in U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the sale.

This proposal doesn’t sit well with thousands of Vantage Travel customers who already consider themselves victims of the company. They view the sale of their private data to the highest bidder as yet another betrayal by the tour operator to whom they gave their loyal business.

• Update : On July 20, 2023, the Consumer Privacy Ombudsman (John Loughnane) appointed by the the U.S. Trustee published his first report on the Vantage Travel bankruptcy case. In this document, he explained that in response to the ongoing complaints about the company’s intention to include personal credit card and passport details in the customer list, Vantage has adjusted those plans. The legal team of Vantage now says that those details will not be transferred to the buyer and the encrypted data will be destroyed before the sale is concluded.

There are a number of things Vantage Travel customers can do now to make sure the bankruptcy court hears their opinions.

1. File Form 410 (Notice of Claim)

Vantage Travel customers owed a refund or have a future trip scheduled should file an official proof of claim. Here’s how to do that:

• Fill out Form 410 Proof of Claim .
• Print out the the form.
• Mail it to the following address: Vantage Travel Service, Inc. Claims Processing c/o Stretto 410 Exchange, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92602

Update : The deadline to file a form 410 Notice of Claim is Dec. 1, 2023 . A number of customers have asked me if they need to file the 410 in the bankruptcy court if they’ve already received their notification of future credits with Pacific Travel. The answer is “Yes.” No one knows what the future will bring and should any funds be made available to the unsecured creditors down the road, you’ll want to be on the official list for a cash distribution. So if Vantage Deluxe World Travel owes you a refund, make sure you put yourself on that list.

2. Contact the U.S. Trustee’s office

The U.S. Trustee Program at the Department of Justice is the bankruptcy proceeding’s watchdog.

These are the key team members (and their contact information) working on the Vantage Travel bankruptcy case:

• Eric Bradford (Lead attorney, U.S. Department of Justice)
• John Loughnane (Consumer Privacy Ombudsman)
• Jason Longton (Paralegal Specialist)

The U.S. Trustee’s team is inviting Vantage customers to submit their questions and concerns to Jason Longton.

Consumers who wish to become part of the unsecured creditors’ committee should send a message to Longton indicating that intention. Those customers will receive a request for more detailed information from the Department of Justice.

Note: The Section 341 meeting of unsecured creditors is scheduled for Aug. 1 at 1:30 p.m. Customers can attend that meeting remotely.

3. Subscribe to receive Vantage bankruptcy updates

Things are happening unusually fast in this bankruptcy case. In the hearing on July 5, the lawyers for Vantage and the potential buyer mentioned the “Need for speed” here. They argued Vantage Travel’s value plummets further each time a new unfavorable article appears in the media.

To keep up with the rapidly evolving case, customers can subscribe to the Vantage bankruptcy updates on Stretto . Stretto publishes all the official documents and transcripts.

4. Attend the hearings in person

The Vantage bankruptcy proceedings are public. That means anyone can attend the hearings at the United States Bankruptcy Court in Boston. Keep your eye on updates in Stretto to find out when the next hearing will be.

5. Attend the hearings via Zoom

As most of the unsecured creditors (customers) are not located in Massachusetts, the court has agreed to a remote broadcast. To participate, you’ll need to create a free Zoom account . Interested consumers can email the court deputy prior to each hearing and request a link to join.

* Note : Make sure to turn off your video camera and microphone if you intend to participate via Zoom. Otherwise, the court and everyone else can see and hear you — even if you aren’t aware of it!

Only turn on your camera and microphone if Judge Bostwick asks for comments and you wish to speak. During the first hearing, she did ask Zoom participants if they had questions.

6. Join our Vantage Travel Customer Support Facebook group (not affiliated with Vantage Travel)

So far, no court has required Vantage to alert its entire customer list of the bankruptcy filing. As a result, many customers who aren’t on the internet have remained in the dark about the situation. I continue to receive emails and phone calls from surprised Vantage customers who come across one of my articles and only just now are hearing the bad news about the company.

To combat this lack of transparency, we established a private Facebook group . We dedicated this space to providing reliable information, guidance, and friendly emotional support to everyone troubled by the Vantage bankruptcy. Our group has become known as a trusted source of factual information that Vantage doesn’t necessarily want to be publicized.

This private group includes thousands of Vantage customers, employees, vendors, and suppliers. Additionally, you’ll find notable journalists, TV newspeople, public relations executives, and of course, consumer advocates.

Will Vantage Travel customers receive refunds?

When cruise lines or tour operators go bankrupt , it often hits the consumers the hardest.

The harsh reality is that it is unlikely that Vantage Travel customers will get their money back. Certainly, it will not happen as a result of the bankruptcy proceedings. 

Vantage Travel is over 170 million dollars in debt with no real assets. Secured creditors and the lawyers involved in bankruptcy proceedings stand at the front of the payout line if there are any proceeds at the conclusion of the case. Unsecured creditors (customers) always get the short end of the stick when a company goes belly-up holding their funds (See: How to get a refund if your cruise line goes bankrupt ). 

But there is one exception to this rule in the Vantage case.

What about trips booked just before Vantage Travel declared bankruptcy?*

Customers who purchased new tours on May 12, 2023, or later will likely receive all their money back. Here’s why: (Please see update below)

Even after it was clear that Vantage was heading to bankruptcy court and had no chance of operating future trips, it continued to market and sell phantom tours to customers who hadn’t yet heard about the company’s dire situation. 

The sales team at Vantage Travel was one of the last departments to be let go. Right up until June 20 (the day they were all fired), these employees, who received commissions based on their sales, continued to cheerfully hype future tours to unaware, mostly elderly customers who were willing to pay with a bank transfer. 

The good news for these customers is that Vantage put all of that group’s cash in a separate account. According to the bankruptcy proposal, there are 2.1 million dollars in a separate account that represents all sales from May 12, 2023. 

If the court approves the sale of Vantage Travel, that money will transfer to the new company. If the new owner is unable to operate the tours as scheduled for those customers, they will be eligible for a cash refund.

*Update* : Because of multiple objections to this part of the sale agreement, it was removed from the final document that was approved on Aug. 14, 2023. The 2.1 million dollars will now remain as part of the bankruptcy estate of Vantage Travel, and customers who purchased new trips after May 11, 2023, will not receive special treatment. They will file a Form 410 as the rest of the Vantage customers .

What about the 1.2 million dollars the Attorney General retrieved?

Last month, in response to growing inquiries from media outlets in Boston, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office released a memo announcing it had retrieved 1.2 million dollars from Vantage for customers. 

Unfortunately, that statement set off a new wave of confusion among Vantage customers, who assumed that now there was a pile of money to share for those in line for a refund.

The truth is that the Massachusetts Attorney General has received nearly 1,200 complaints from Vantage customers since 2020. The 1.2 million dollars cited in the press release is the total amount the office has negotiated in refunds for Vantage customers during the entire three years. Vantage did not send money to the Attorney General, and no cash is waiting for disbursement.

If you consider that Vantage Travel sold luxury tours that on average cost around $15,000, it’s not hard to figure out that the vast majority of customers who contacted the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (or any other advocate) have not received a refund.

Will the new owner honor our Vantage Travel trip or refund?

If you are a Vantage customer and  have a future trip scheduled , you can assume it’s canceled. Your contract is with Vantage Deluxe World Travel, and at the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, that company will no longer exist.

In the bankruptcy filing, there are no provisions for cash refunds for customers.

If the bankruptcy proposal proceeds as is, customers who are owed refunds will only receive a small future trip credit from the new company. The value of the credit will be equal to 20 percent of the refund that Vantage Travel owed to the customer.

* August Update : Pacific Travel Partners, a subsidiary of Aurora Expeditions, became the winning bidder for the remnants of Vantage Travel. Under the sale agreement, Vantage customers who are owed refunds will receive future travel credits equal to 100% of the value of what was owed to them at the time of the bankruptcy (with limitations). This is a much better outcome compared to what the customers would receive had the competing company United Travel won the bankruptcy auction.

Can I file a credit card dispute against Vantage?

The Fair Credit Billing Act protects credit card-using consumers from merchants who do not provide the purchased goods or services as described. It also protects consumers against fraud. 

Customers who paid for their Vantage Travel tour with a credit card should contact their credit card company to ask about filing a chargeback based on services not received as promised. 

If your credit card company accepts your dispute, you will receive a temporary credit, and Vantage will have 30 days to respond to the chargeback. At the end of those 30 days, if Vantage has not responded, the temporary credit will become permanent. 

Note: If you made your payment many months or even years ago, you may need to remind your credit card company that the deadline for filing a dispute is based on the expected date of service, not the date you first made a payment. If the front-line customer service agent doesn’t accept your request, ask to speak to a supervisor who will likely be more familiar with the Fair Credit Billing Act.

Strange update: There’s been a strange turn of events for customers who have filed valid credit card disputes against Vantage Deluxe World Travel . Who is contesting those credit card chargebacks?

Could my bank reverse the payment I made to Vantage?

Unfortunately, most Vantage customers did not use a credit card to pay for their trip. Instead, they were enticed by the small discount Vantage offered when a customer would pay with an instant bank transfer.

In general, bank transfers are not reversible – especially ones that were authorized by the consumer. However, that should not prevent you from asking your bank about this possibility.

In some cases, if the bank transfer has been initiated in the last 30-60 days, your bank may decide to pursue the reversal with the receiving bank. 

Will the Travel Protection sold by Vantage help?

The Vantage Travel Protection is of no use to its customers now that the company has ceased to operate and is bankrupt. 

The product was highly problematic because Vantage was self-insuring Part A of that policy (pre-departure cancellations) – with no underwriter.

And Vantage ran out of money… a long time ago. 

Today, Vantage owes around 5 million dollars to customers who have approved claims via its “travel protection” that, in the end, provided no protection at all to those travelers.

What about that Allianz policy?

Travel insurance can be confusing to consumers. There is no doubt about it. For that reason, the industry offers a 10-14 day (depending on the company) look-over period during which travel insurance purchasers can carefully review the entire policy. After that time, the policy becomes nonrefundable and legally binding.

The travel insurance industry is highly regulated and so consumers can be confident that an insurance company will provide all the protection described in their policy. The opposite is also true. By thoroughly reading the document during the look-over period, travelers can be certain of what is and isn’t covered by the travel insurance policy.

Unfortunately, many travelers do not read those travel insurance policies.

As a consumer advocate, that fact has never been more clear to me than in the past three months. During that time, my email box and message center have been flooded with questions and misunderstandings about the responsibility Allianz and TripMate have to Vantage customers.

The Vantage Deluxe World Travel Protection Plan came with a 10-day look-over period. But the mass confusion about this policy proves that most customers didn’t read the document — until now.

In the Vantage case, Allianz and TripMate were only providing post-departure travel insurance. That means that all customers who bought that policy from Vantage had full post-departure medical coverage, trip interruption and delay protection, evacuation benefits, lost luggage coverage and more. It was a valuable, comprehensive travel insurance product that many Vantage customers who completed their trips utilized.

Of course, that part of the policy had no value if Vantage didn’t actually operate the tour. 

Will travel insurance ever pay when a tour company cancels?

Desperate Vantage customers are looking for any alternative way to recoup the money that Vantage owes to them. I’ve received a plethora of requests from customers asking me to ask TripMate and Allianz to provide the refunds that Vantage owes them.

These requests indicate a basic misunderstanding of the Vantage Travel Protection Plan at its core: it only pertains to customer-initiated cancellations. Neither part of that plan provides any coverage for a cancellation initiated by Vantage.

Fact: When a tour operator cancels a customer’s trip, it owes the refund — not the travel insurance company. The only exception to this rule, is if the tour operator goes bankrupt AND the customer purchased a comprehensive travel insurance policy that includes an insolvency clause.

For a more detailed explanation of the difference between a travel protection product and a true travel insurance policy, you can read Consumer Rescue’s guide on the topic.

Will the new company give Vantage customers a free trip as a gesture of goodwill?

No. This is a suggestion that lands in my email box over and over again. The new company is a for-profit company. They wish to buy the customer data so that they can market to the list and sell new trips. None of the companies vying to buy that list are offering to absorb the enormous debt that Vantage has accrued.

The bottom line: A 110 million dollar goodwill gesture isn’t going to happen.

I’m sorry I don’t have better news to report for Vantage customers. I will continue to update our readers via Facebook , in the Consumer Rescue newsletter and in our Facebook group. Stay tuned…

*Update 8/20/23: Vantage Travel is sold. Here’s what that means to customers

Update 11/27/23: The deadline to submit a notice of claim (410) to the bankruptcy court is Dec. 1, 2023. Make sure to file electronically via Stretto before that date if you were owed a refund at the time Vantage Travel filed for bankruptcy.

Update: 12/1/23: The deadline to file a notice of claim has passed but if you are a Vantage Travel customer who is owed a refund from the bankrupt company, you should contact the new company Vantage Explorations. You may be able to receive future travel credits with VE. Here’s how to contact their team: [email protected] (Note: Only one E in the middle of that email address.)

Related: Good news: Here’s how Consumer Rescue helped return nearly $100,000 to Vantage Travel bankruptcy victims as we ended 2023.

Update: 1/21/24: Why are so many former customers of Vantage Travel opting out of their credits with the new company? Is there any way to reverse what looks like bankruptcy claimant confusion? ( Michelle Couch-Friedman , reporting for Consumer Rescue)

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3 thoughts on “Vantage Travel is bankrupt. Here’s what customers need to know”

Crystal Cruises said that money paid on new bookings from March of 2021 until it went bankrupt were put in a reserve account so that customers who booked after that date would get a refund if things did not work out financially. Crystal, like Vantage, continued to sell until the company collapsed. Those deposits were not protected in any way and those awaiting a refund (I had a deposit down) were out the money. I had made a deposit months before Crystal’s dire financial situation become well known and had insurance that covered financial default. Friends who booked the same cruise were not as fortunate. I wonder if the bankruptcy court will do the same with Vantage’s separate deposit account.

The article has been undated since it was published to note the court’s final ruling on the 2.1 million dollars Vantage said it was holding in a separate account: Because of multiple objections from secured creditors (Like Chase Bank), the 2.1 million dollars was ultimately determined not to be a separate chunk of money and went into the overall bankruptcy estate (it didn’t transfer to the new company and it will not be returned to those customers as previously reported — those customers will join the unsecured creditors and receive future travel credits with the new company instead of refunds).

We tried diligently to contact Vantage by email and telephone without success. We then received the abrupt email notification of cancellation of our August 15th 2023 Great Lakes trip. It seems that Vantage used our deposits in a ponzi scheme to keep itself afloat until the June 29th announcement of bankruptcy. The hurry up and sell process does not do anything to protect those cash deposits. The accounting process seems to have been a criminal act of improperly using current deposits to reimburse previously cancelled trips for earlier depositors.

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Vantage Travel is bankrupt. But what about its owner? Two lawsuits say he should reimburse customers who lost millions.

W ith the sale of its remaining assets in bankruptcy court last month, Vantage Travel went out of business, bringing to an ignominious end one of Boston’s oldest and most successful international travel companies.

But the battle continues for the thousands of Vantage customers who are still owed large refunds for trips the company postponed or canceled.

Attorneys general in New York and Pennsylvania have set their sights on Vantage’s founder and longtime owner Hank Lewis, suing him personally in an effort to recoup some of the $108 million owed to customers whose trips never happened.

And while the corporation he founded is bankrupt, a check of court records through last week showed no filing by Lewis for personal bankruptcy.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a suit on Sep. 13 against Lewis personally, and Vantage as a corporation.

“By virtue of the conduct alleged … [Lewis and Vantage] have engaged in repeated and persistent fraudulent conduct,” the suit says.

In June, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry filed a similar suit that accuses Lewis personally (and Vantage corporately) of engaging in unlawful “deceptive and unfair business practices.”

Yet, the Massachusetts attorney general has not filed suit against Lewis or Vantage. Instead, the AG’s office chose to go after Vantage while it was still in business. But that approach has resulted in just about a dozen settlements for Mass. residents for less than $200,000.

Since 2020, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office has received more than 1,500 complaints about Vantage, including 134 from Massachusetts residents. Thirty of those in-state complaints were resolved without the attorney general’s help, and of the remaining 104 complaints, the attorney general’s office helped mediate 13 for a total of $162,000 in refunds, or about $12,500 each.

The attorney general’s office also successfully mediated on behalf of 72 out-of-state residents for a total or almost $1.2 million, or about $16,500 each.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said the office opted to pressure Vantage to make refunds while it was still in business, rather than sue the company, as a strategy most likely to produce quick results. Campbell’s predecessor as attorney general, now-Governor Maura Healey, oversaw the issue through the end of 2022.

Almost 80 complaints are still pending at the attorney general’s office. But since Vantage filed for voluntary bankruptcy on June 29, Campbell’s office has been blocked from mediating those complaints due to bankruptcy rules and the company’s recent sale to an Australian travel company.

But Campbell’s office supports the efforts of the New York and Pennsylvania attorneys general and is in regular contact with them, according to her office.

Last month, under the supervision of the bankruptcy court, Vantage sold its customer list and the Vantage name to Pacific Travel Partners, a subsidiary of the Australia-based Aurora Expeditions, for $2 million.

But the bankruptcy case is not closed. A committee representing creditors, including the thousands of customers who are owed refunds, is investigating whether assets controlled by other Lewis-owned companies should be subject to distribution to creditors.

The New York and Pennsylvania lawsuits against Vantage as a corporation are stayed for now under bankruptcy rules. And even if the stay were to be lifted, the company has few, if any, remaining assets to satisfy any eventual court judgment against it, bankruptcy court filings show.

But it’s a different story for Lewis.

“The bankruptcy of a company may protect it from lawsuits, but it doesn’t protect the owner from being sued personally,” said Francis C. Morrissey, a bankruptcy lawyer and Boston University adjunct law professor.

“If the owner of a company personally has money, he’s got exposure,” he said.

Founded by Lewis 40 years ago, Vantage operated expensive river and ocean cruises and land tours around the world, with a customer base of predominantly travelers 60 and older. He was Vantage’s president, treasurer, secretary, chairman, sole director, CEO, and CFO, according to the recently filed suits.

Multiple emails seeking comment on behalf of Lewis were sent to Lewis’s bankruptcy attorneys, who are listed in filings by the New York attorney general’s office with its lawsuit, but were not answered. An email to Lewis at his former Vantage address “could not be delivered,” and there was no response to emails to other Vantage executives seeking comment on Lewis’s behalf.

The New York suit alleges that for more than three years, Vantage, with Lewis at the helm, repeatedly canceled scheduled trips, but instead of acknowledging them as cancellations, called them “postponement.”

The suit says calling them postponements opened the door for Vantage to refuse refunds while instead offering future travel credits, which the suit says violated the company’s own agreement with customers to provide “prompt refunds” for a canceled trip.

The suit cites the example of a 92-year-old woman who paid Vantage more than $20,000 in advance for a cruise scheduled for August 2022.

“Vantage canceled the trip, claiming that it had merely been ‘postponed’ until a year later,” the suit says, noting that the customer by then would have been one month shy of her 94th birthday.

“Vantage told this consumer that she could not get a refund because the trip was not canceled,” the suit says.

When the customer protested she couldn’t wait another year for the trip, Vantage offered her an earlier one.

“But then five weeks before that departure, Vantage again supposedly ‘postponed’ that trip” for more than a year, the suit says.

Vantage offered the woman a credit for future travel “but refused to provide a refund,” the suit says.

In another example, the New York suit cites a couple who wanted to cancel due to a recently diagnosed medical condition. But when they called to demand a refund of $18,000, a Vantage representative told them the company didn’t have to provide a cash refund under a new government policy meant to protect struggling travel companies, allowing them to instead offer a voucher for future travel, the suit says.

There was no such government policy, the suit says.

The New York suit says Lewis had “knowledge of and participated in the deceptive practices … and is therefore liable for” them.

“In emails to consumers who cancelled their trips due to Covid-19, Lewis repeatedly mentioned a ‘risk-free cancellation policy’ for future trips and offered credits or other incentives for consumers to book new trips, which Lewis knew or should have known could not be fulfilled,” the suit says.

In almost every communication, Lewis mentioned the high volume of calls to Vantage’s customer service line and often added that this was “resulting in unusually long wait times,” the suit says.

Despite Lewis’s awareness that consumers could not promptly reach customer service to discuss “postponed” trips, this problem was not rectified, the suit says.

The New York suit seeks an unspecified amount in “restitution and damages” for aggrieved consumers. It doesn’t say how many New Yorkers are owed refunds, but makes reference to 31 customers listed in a “representative sample” provided by Vantage under subpoena.

The Pennsylvania suit seeks “restitution to all customers who have suffered losses” without a specific number. When the suit was filed, the attorney general’s office asked anyone who may be a victim to contact that office.

The Pennsylvania attorney general, in her lawsuit, says Lewis and Vantage promised “‘risk-free’ travel, but in reality, [they] misapply their [contractual] terms and conditions by taking large sums of consumers’ monies and then fail to provide meaningful relief for consumers when they cannot travel.”

“Vantage took advantage of older Pennsylvanians by continuing to hold their refunds hostage,” Henry said in announcing the suit.

“If Pennsylvania consumers pay for goods or services and get nothing in return, our office will fight for those victims,” she said.

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New management of bankrupt Vantage Travel to reimburse customers who had trips canceled 100% in travel credits

Jilted customers will receive full credit on future trips.

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Jilted customers of Vantage Travel , the luxury cruise line that went bankrupt in June and canceled trips worth thousands of dollars, will receive 100% reimbursement to put toward future travel thanks to new buyer Pacific Travel.

According to details of an agreement outlined in federal bankruptcy court Wednesday, customers will have until Nov. 30, 2028, to book travel with the new company, and caps will be imposed for how much value can be applied to individual services.

A cruise ship is seen off Port Douglas in Cairns, Australia, in 2012. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images, File / Getty Images)

Oceangoing travel credits will be capped at 50% of the trip's cost, while credits toward river cruises and land travel, like safaris, will be capped at 20%. Credits can be applied toward either a deposit or later payment but cannot be used toward airfare, according to the agreement.

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Credits are also transferrable to friends or family and be spread across multiple trips .

The embattled Boston-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. (Vantage Cruise Lines / Fox News)

The news comes after Boston, Massachusetts-based Vantage Travel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy June 29, had agreed to be acquired by United Travel Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Nordic Hamburg and Heritage Expeditions. Last week, however, Pacific Travel of Aurora Expeditions in Australia, placed a $2 million bid to assume Vantage's assets, WFXT Boston 25 reported .

In the bankruptcy filing, Vantage admitted that customers lost $108 million for trips they had paid for, but never got to take.

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"Vantage has sought customary relief from the court to preserve the status quo pending completion of the sale," the company wrote in a statement. "Vantage has sought approval to complete the sale promptly, subject to any higher and better offers that may be submitted through the court-supervised sale process."

Vantage Travel has been under fire for months after hundreds of consumers complained about a lack of refunds for canceled or postponed trips. (iStock / iStock)

Boston 25 reported that the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said it received more than 1,120 consumer complaints against Vantage since Jan. 1, 2020. 

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The customers complained that they did not receive any refund after their luxury cruise was unexpectedly canceled.

Vantage Travel did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

A final ruling on the purchase will take place Monday.

Notice to Passengers Regarding Vantage Travel Services, Inc.

The Federal Maritime Commission (Commission) is aware that Vantage Travel Services, Inc. (Vantage) has filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

The bankruptcy petition has been assigned Case No. 23-11060 and is  currently pending in the United States  Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Consumers should consult the Vantage website for information regarding the status of the company’s business and operations.

Information about bankruptcy proceedings can be found online.

The Commission is monitoring this situation and will provide updates as warranted.

The Commission is not a party to the bankruptcy, nor does it have any role in its proceedings, however individuals with questions may contact the FMC Office of Passenger Vessel Operators (PVO) at [email protected] .

Travelers looking for refunds from Vantage Travel may not get them in full

Our nbc responds teams have heard from consumers across the country who want their money refunded after their vantage travel vacations were canceled, by leslie gaydos • published july 5, 2023 • updated on july 5, 2023 at 6:31 pm.

The Boston-based Vantage Travel services filed for bankruptcy protection last week, leaving a lot people out big money after trips were canceled.

But the details in the bankruptcy court filing indicate that travelers hoping for refunds may not get the full cost back.

Watch NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are

Our NBC Responds teams have heard from consumers across the country who want their money refunded after their Vantage Travel vacations were canceled.  There were people who paid  $10,000, $20,000, and in some cases even more than $20,000 for their trips.

Ellen Messina paid more than $11,000 for a three-week trip to central Europe, making her final payment in April.   On June 3, she was notified that the trip was canceled and although she was told she was eligible for a full refund, there was no timeline given for when she would get her money back. She is hoping for the best after the bankruptcy filing.

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“I have traveled enough that and I've never had a problem,  never,” said Messina.  “Who would have thought I mean that Vantage would go bankrupt...it had such a great reputation....but still, nonetheless, this is in the courts now. And this I’m sure will just drag on."

Vantage announced on its website that it is selling its business operations to United Travel PT, an affiliate of Nordic Hamburg and Heritage Expeditions.  

In the bankruptcy court filing, it said United Travel has agreed to provide a credit for future tours to Vantage customers who purchased trips before May 11, 2023.

Consumers would receive a maximum credit of 20% of the price of the Vantage trip they purchased,  which would be good for a year after the closing of the proposed sale.

The filing still needs the approval of a bankruptcy judge. 

We reached out to Vantage Travel and United Travel for comment, but have yet to hear back.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office said it is still encouraging residents who are seeking refunds from Vantage Travel to file a complaint with their office online. Out-of-state consumers are encouraged to file with their state Attorney General.

The Mass. AG’S office said their Consumer Advocacy and Response Division has recovered more than $1.2 million for consumers from Vantage and they will continue to work with the company to secure refunds for consumers.

According to the court filing, Vantage Travel lost more than $29 million in 2020.  And while travel rebounded in recent years, court papers say it remained below Vantage’s pre-pandemic levels, resulting in continuing losses despite their attempts to down-size and reduce costs.

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Aurora Sweetens Offer, Wins Auction for Vantage Travel Assets

• August 9, 2023

Pacific Travel Partners, a subsidiary of Aurora Expeditions, has won the auction for the assets of Vantage Travel in the company’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

The U.S. bankruptcy court will still oversee the bankruptcy process and will ultimately need to approve the sale, which faces objections from multiple parties.

Australia-based Aurora Expeditions, which operates the Greg Mortimer and Sylvia Earle (sister ships to both Vantage ships) year-round in the adventure cruise market, significantly sweetened its offer for Vantage.

The cash component of the bid was reported at $2 million, up from $1.5 million, while future consideration is based on five percent of the company’s total revenue from 2024 through 2028, according to Michael J. Goldberg, a lawyer from Casner & Edwards, representing Vantage, speaking on Wednesday morning in bankruptcy court.

For Vantage customers, they can use credits on trips through Nov. 30, 2028; credits are also transferrable to friends and family, but cannot be sold.

Vantage customers can use their credits to fund up to 50 percent of the cost of an ocean-going cruise, up from 20 percent from the original bid put in by Pacific Travel.

For river cruising and land trips, credits are capped at 20 percent of the trip cost. Credits cannot be used for air travel or trip extensions.

Credits can be applied to either the up-front deposit on the trip, or the final payment.

All deposits on new bookings from former Vantage customers will be placed in a trust account and not released to Pacific Travel until a day before the trip leaves.

The auction, which was scheduled for Monday afternoon, extended into Tuesday night and was held at a local law office in Boston, where the bankruptcy proceedings are taking place.

Final sealed bids were due by 7:00 p.m. Tuesday night, with Pacific Travel Partners emerging victorious after three rounds of bidding.

United Travel, made up of Nordic Hamburg and Heritage Expeditions, now becomes the “back up” bidder should the Pacific Travel deal fall through.

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Luxury cruise line vantage travel's bankruptcy case heads to federal court in boston.

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Boston-based Vantage Travel, a troubled luxury cruise company that was the subject of hundreds of consumer complaints and at least one lawsuit , brought its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to a federal courtroom on Wednesday.

The company announced last week that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts and agreed to be acquired by United Travel Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Nordic Hamburg and Heritage Expeditions.

A dense and lengthy hearing for creditors in the bankruptcy case was held Wednesday at the Moakley courthouse.

Prior to that hearing, the United States Trustee for Region 1 submitted an objection to the court in which he sharply criticized Vantage's actions, including the timing of their bankruptcy filing during the holiday week.

"The filing appears to have been orchestrated to limit notice and to prevent parties in interest from having an adequate opportunity to review the filing and raise objections," he wrote.

According to the Trustee's document , Vantage fired all but 5 of its employees and had just $4,207 and liabilities totaling more than $170 million as of the petition date. The company used $80.3 million in customer deposits to fund pre-bankruptcy operations, borrowed $35 million in 2023 and owes an additional $28.5 million in customer refunds and cancellations.

As of last week, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office said it had received at least 1,120 consumer complaints against Vantage since Jan. 1, 2020, including 478 filed this year. Of those, a total of 108 complaints came from Massachusetts residents, including 50 this year.

The AG's office also said its Consumer Advocacy and Response Division has recovered more than $1.23 million for consumers to date.

Video below: Customers may be left high and dry

According to the company's bankruptcy court filing , the vast majority of customers who booked and paid for trips on or before May 11, 2023, won't see any refunds, even if the company was responsible for canceling their trip. The only compensation they'd receive would be a maximum credit of 20% toward a new cruise booking with the company hoping to buy the remnants of Vantage, United Travel Pte., a Singapore-based tour company.

The bankruptcy code does require customer deposits received by a company prior to filing for bankruptcy to be paid before many other debts, but in this case, Vantage's filing says, "it is extremely unlikely that there will be assets available to pay even a fraction of these priority claims."

Last month , Boston-based attorneys and a client from California filed a class-action lawsuit against Vantage in federal court. They claimed that customers who suffered short-notice cancellations have sought refunds for canceled trips, but "all of them have been stonewalled and misled."

Prices of trips detailed in the lawsuit ranged from $18,099 to $34,634.

Vantage's bankruptcy filing says customers who booked and made payments on or after May 12, 2023, for future travel will either have those trips take place as scheduled or customers will receive refunds. Those funds were put into a separate account, totaling $2.1 million, but that's a small fraction of the total amount Vantage says it owes customers.

Video below: Unhappy customers sue Vantage Travel

Cruise company Vantage Travel seeks bankruptcy protection after canceled, postponed trips

A Boston-based cruise operator that recently left would-be travelers out of thousands of dollars for trips that were postponed or canceled at the last minute has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Vantage World Deluxe Travel agreed to be sold to United Travel Pte. Ltd., a company from Singapore and an affiliate of Nordic Hamburg and Heritage Expeditions.

In a bankruptcy filing on June 29, Gregory DelGreco, Vantage’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said that the company’s “unsecured indebtedness” to customers includes $80.3 million for trips that didn’t happen but were paid for in advance, $23 million in refunds for canceled trips and $5.4 million for approved cancellation fees.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a “substantial impact” on Vantage, DelGreco said. Revenues declined from $132 million in 2019 to $10 million the next year.

“For a number of months, its tours had been postponed, and (Vantage) was relying on cash reserves generated by pre-pandemic bookings to fund its working capital needs,” DelGreco said in a filing.

Vantage sought buyer for more than a year

Vantage CEO Henry Lewis, who founded the company 40 years ago, retained an investment banking firm in August 2021 to seek new revenue sources or even a buyer, according to David Herman, a partner at Gordian Group. 

The company had been negotiating a sale to Nordic earlier this year until Vantage was hit with a ransomware attack, Herman said. 

More: Would-be travelers out thousands of dollars after last-minute cancellations. What to do

The attack left the company without the ability to communicate with its customers or access financial documents for a potential buyer, and negotiations fell apart, DelGreco said. Nordic has since made an alternative proposal. 

Vantage also postponed its European river cruises over an “ongoing dispute” with the river cruises manager and other trips for the past several weeks because the company lacked money.

Will customers get their money back?

Vantage said it would not plan to operate any trips through the bankruptcy case.

The company set aside payments from customers it received starting May 12 to the present. That money will be transferred to the buyer, which must then “provide the travel opportunities booked by these customers, or return funds received from those bookings.”

Under proposed terms laid out in the filing, which could change, the buyer would offer a credit to Vantage customers who had made travel arrangements before May 11.

More: Loxahatchee retiree says Miami Dolphins cruise promoter scammed her, other fans

It was not clear how, if at all, would-be travelers who paid for part or all of their unfulfilled trips before May would be made whole. It was also immediately unclear whether customers could file claims with the court.

Vantage has between 10,000 and 25,000 creditors; estimated liabilities between $100 million and $500 million; and estimated assets between $1 million and $10 million, court documents show.

Hundreds of complaints filed with Florida attorney general

The Palm Beach Post documented in May how some Floridians were impacted by Vantage’s cancellations. One couple was notified at the airport that their trip to Paris, Belgium and the Netherlands was off. Travelers spent thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on these cruises offered around the world, many paying by check to receive the company’s discount.

The Florida Office of Attorney General had received 28 complaints against the company as of mid-May. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Attorney General has received more than 800 complaints and more than $1 million has been recovered for customers, according to news reports.

More: Margaritaville at Sea bringing in huge revenue for Port of Palm Beach.

Steve Miller, a Boca Raton-based bankruptcy attorney not affiliated with the case, said customers are typically lower on the list of debtors who are repaid in these scenarios.

If a customer paid by credit card, they can try to get their money back through their credit card company, he said.

“It’s not a great hope that they’ll recover (their money). There’s a chance they could,” he said.

Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at  [email protected] , call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter  @mannahhorse .

Vantage Deluxe World Travel to Operate as Vantage Explorations After Aurora Expeditions Acquisition

(8:10 a.m. EDT) -- Following its recent acquisition by Aurora Expeditions, former river and small ship cruise line Vantage Deluxe World Travel is set to be reborn as Vantage Explorations.

The announcement comes a few months after Vantage Deluxe World Travel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Earlier this month, Pacific Travel Partners -- a subsidiary of Aurora Expeditions -- announced the acquisition of Vantage Deluxe World Travel's assets.

A representative of Aurora Expeditions said that the company would announce the new plans for Vantage Explorations in the coming months, referring to the product as a new "Vantage style" offering. It is expected that Vantage Explorations will feature ocean, river and land-based itineraries.

Headquartered in Boston , Vantage offered small ship ocean cruises in Europe, the Mediterranean , North America, Alaska , South America , Asia and the Middle East ; expedition cruises in Antarctica , the Arctic and South America; as well as land excursions in North America, South America, Asia and the South Pacific The company also offered river cruises in Europe and Egypt .

Vantage had chartered two expedition ships -- Ocean Explorer and Ocean Odyssey -- as well as river vessels River Splendor and River Venture .

The Aurora Expeditions subsidiary agreed to take on obligations to unsecured creditors including clients who had paid for but not received travel services, offering a credit to be used on future travel with Pacific Travel Partners. The company, however, did not acquire the Vantage Deluxe Travel'a business nor did it agree to employ former management.

The Company has agreed to apply these credits to future travel and will allow customers to use their credits to pay for up to 50% of an Aurora Expeditions' voyage based on current published brochure price. Although no further details are currently available, Vantage Explorations said it will communicate the full terms and conditions associated with the passenger credits to passengers as soon as possible. The company also said customer service agents will be set up to assist passengers with inquiries.  

Vantage Deluxe World Travel's Chapter 11 filing -- submitted on June 29th in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts -- revealed that Vantage's accounts payable debts had increased to approximately $28 million. Additionally, related court-filed documents indicate that claims by existing customers who have made payments for future trips are estimated at about $80.3 million.

Cruise Critic will update this article with additional information as it becomes available.

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Vantage Travel: Moscow-St. Petersburg River Cruise Tour - Russia Forum

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Has anyone taken a Vantage River Cruise Tour? I'd love to hear about it. We are active older travellers with a deep interest in the history and culture of the country we visit...would like to know if this might be more to our liking than a cruise ship to St. P. in the Baltic, We have not really enjoyed that method of travel in the past because there is so little time in port and meals all seem to be on board ship.

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Red Lobster closings: See which locations are shutting down as company files for bankruptcy

Red Lobster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida, the company confirmed in a statement late Sunday night.

Last week,  Red Lobster's website listed 87 stores listed as "temporarily closed"  across 27 states, with some of them having their  kitchen equipment up for auction  on an online restaurant liquidator.

According to Red Lobster, the company intends to use the bankruptcy proceedings to "drive operational improvements, simplify the business through a reduction in locations, and pursue a sale of substantially all of its assets."

Red Lobster, founded in 1968 and headquartered in Orlando, said in the statement Sunday night it would sell its business to a new entity that will be wholly owned and controlled by its lenders, and that "Red Lobster's restaurants will remain open and operating as usual during the Chapter 11 process." The company has been working with vendors to ensure restaurant operations are unaffected, according to the statement.

"This restructuring is the best path forward for Red Lobster. It allows us to address several financial and operational challenges and emerge stronger and re-focused on our growth," said Jonathan Tibus, the company's CEO, in the statement. "The support we've received from our lenders and vendors will help ensure that we can complete the sale process quickly and efficiently while remaining focused on our employees and guests." 

Here's what we know about the closures, including where they're happening and why these restaurants are closing.

Red Lobster updates: Red Lobster lists 99 restaurants closed in 28 states: See locations closing in your state

'We're not going out of business': As Red Lobster locations close, chain begins outreach

Red Lobster bankruptcy: Red Lobster files for bankruptcy days after closing dozens of locations across the US

Which Red Lobster locations are closed?

Each of these restaurants are currently listed as temporarily closed on the website:

• Rohnert Park
• Wheat Ridge
• Altamonte Springs
• Daytona Beach Shores
• Gainesville
• Jacksonville (Commerce Center Drive)  
• Jacksonville (Baymeadows Road)  
• Jacksonville (City Station Drive)
• Orlando (E. Colonial Dr.)
• Orlando (W. Colonial Dr.)
• Orlando (Golden Sky Lane) 
• Tampa (East Busch Blvd.)
• Tampa (Palm Pointe Dr.)
• Bloomingdale

Will America lose Red Lobster? Changing times bring sea change to menu, history, outlook

• Indianapolis (N. Shadeland Ave.)
• Kansas City
• Bossier City
• Gaithersburg
• Silver Spring

Mississippi

• Jefferson City
• Bridgewater
• East Brunswick
• Lawrenceville
• Poughkeepsie
• Stony Brook
• Williamsville

North Carolina

• Rocky Mount

North Dakota

• Grand Forks
• Oklahoma City

Pennsylvania

South carolina.

• Myrtle Beach
• Dallas (E. Technology Blvd.)
• Dallas (Vantage Point Dr.)
• Lake Jackson
• Colonial Heights
• Newport News
• Williamsburg

Who own Red Lobster restaurants?

Thai Unio n  Group  − which is based in Thailand − has been the largest shareholder since 2020, owning 49% of the company.  Darden Restaurants  originally sold off Red Lobster to private equity firm  Golden Gate Capital  in 2014 for about $2.1 billion.

Red Lobster suffered big losses with 'Ultimate Endless Shrimp' promotion

In 2023, the seafood chain's " Ultimate Endless Shrimp " deal became more popular than expected, inadvertently becoming a key factor in a $11 million loss in the third quarter.

The limited-time promotional deal, in which guests picked two types of shrimp to enjoy nonstop for $20, landed a permanent spot on Red Lobster menus in June. Red Lobster's parent company, Thai Union Group, said in November 2023 that the chain was headed toward a $20 million loss for 2023. Now the endless shrimp deal costs $25.

Thai Union Group CFO Ludovic Regis Henri Garnier said in an earnings report call that the company was aware the initial price for the endless-shrimp deal was cheap. The offer was intended to draw customers into restaurants, but orders exceeded expectations, he said.

"We wanted to boost our traffic, and it didn't work," Garnier told investors in November 2023, according to  Restaurant Business Magazine . "We want to keep it on the menu. And of course we need to be much more careful regarding what are the entry points and what is the price point we are offering for this promotion."

Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X  @GabeHauari  or email him at [email protected].

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Once a Sheriff’s Deputy in Florida, Now a Source of Disinformation From Russia

In 2016, Russia used an army of trolls to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. This year, an American given asylum in Moscow may be accomplishing much the same thing all by himself.

By Steven Lee Myers

Steven Lee Myers spoke to more than a dozen researchers and government officials for this article.

A dozen years ago, John Mark Dougan, a former deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, Fla., sent voters an email posing as a county commissioner, urging them to oppose the re-election of the county’s sheriff.

He later masqueraded online as a Russian tech worker with a pseudonym, BadVolf, to leak confidential information in violation of state law, fooling officials in Florida who thought they were dealing with a foreigner.

He also posed as a fictional New York City heiress he called Jessica, tricking an adviser to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office into divulging improper conduct by the department.

“And boy, did he ever spill ALL of the beans,” Mr. Dougan said in a written response to questions for this article, in which he confirmed his role in these episodes.

Those subterfuges in the United States, it turned out, were only a prelude to a more prominent and potentially more ominous campaign of deception he has been conducting from Russia.

Mr. Dougan, 51, who received political asylum in Moscow, is now a key player in Russia’s disinformation operations against the West. Back in 2016, when the Kremlin interfered in the American presidential election, an army of computer trolls toiled for hours in an office building in St. Petersburg to try to fool Americans online.

Today Mr. Dougan may be accomplishing much the same task largely by himself, according to American and European government officials and researchers from companies and organizations that have tracked his activities since August. The groups include NewsGuard, a company that reviews the reliability of news and information online; Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company; and Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub.

Working from an apartment crowded with servers and other computer equipment, Mr. Dougan has built an ever-growing network of more than 160 fake websites that mimic news outlets in the United States, Britain and France.

With the help of commercially available artificial intelligence tools, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E 3, he has filled the sites with tens of thousands of articles, many based on actual news events. Interspersed among them are also bespoke fabrications that officials in the United States and European Union have attributed to Russian intelligence agencies or the administration of President Vladimir V. Putin.

Between September and May, Mr. Dougan’s outlets have been cited or referred to in news articles or social media posts nearly 8,000 times, and seen by more than 37 million people in 16 languages, according to a report released Wednesday by NewsGuard .

The fakes have recently included a baseless article on a fake San Francisco Chronicle website that said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had smuggled 300 kilograms of cocaine from Argentina. Another false narrative appeared last month in the sham Chronicle and on another site, called The Boston Times, claiming that the C.I.A. was working with Ukrainians to undermine Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Dougan, in a series of text exchanges and one telephone interview with The New York Times, denied operating the sites. A digital trail of clues, including web domains and internet protocol addresses, suggests otherwise, the officials and researchers say.

A friend in Florida who has known Mr. Dougan for 20 years, Jose Lambiet, also said in a telephone interview that Mr. Dougan told him in January that he had created the sites.

Steven Brill, a founder of NewsGuard, which has spent months tracking Mr. Dougan’s work, said he represented “a massive incursion into the American news ecosystem.”

“It’s not just some guy sitting in his basement in New Jersey tapping out a phony website,” he added.

Mr. Dougan’s emergence as a weapon of the Kremlin’s propaganda war follows a troubled life in the United States that included home foreclosures and bankruptcy. As a law enforcement officer in Florida and Maine, he faced accusations of excessive use of force and sexual harassment that resulted in costly lawsuits against the departments he worked for.

He faces an arrest warrant in Florida — its records sealed by court order — on 21 felony charges of extortion and wiretapping that resulted from a long-running feud with the sheriff of Palm Beach County.

Mr. Dougan’s activities from Moscow, where he fled in 2016 one step ahead of those charges, continue to draw scrutiny from the authorities in the United States. Last year, he impersonated an F.B.I. agent in a telephone call to Mr. Brill, according to an account by Mr. Brill to be published next week in a new book, “The Death of Truth.”

Mr. Dougan, who acknowledged making the call in a text message this week, had been angered by a NewsGuard report in February 2023 that criticized YouTube for allowing videos parroting Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, including some by Mr. Dougan.

In a rambling, profanity-laced video in response on YouTube last year, Mr. Dougan posted excerpts from the call with Mr. Brill and showed a Google Earth satellite photograph of his home in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City — “just down the road from the Clinton crime family,” as Mr. Dougan put it, referring to the home of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The call prompted an F.B.I. investigation that, according to Mr. Brill, traced the call to Mr. Dougan’s telephone in Russia. (A spokeswoman for the bureau did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation or Mr. Dougan’s previous activities.)

A History in Law Enforcement

Mr. Dougan began to hone the skills that he is putting to use today during a turbulent childhood in the United States. In the written responses to questions for this article, he said he had struggled at home and in school, bullied because of Tourette’s syndrome, but found a passion in computers. When he was 8, he said, the man who would become his stepfather began teaching him to write computer code.

“By the time I was 16,” he wrote in one response, “I knew a dozen different programming languages.”

After a four-year stint in the Marine Corps, which he claims he offered to join in lieu of a jail sentence for fleeing a police stop for speeding on a motorcycle, he became a police officer first in a small force in Mangonia Park, Fla., and then the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office from 2005 to 2009.

According to news reports and his own accounts over the years, Mr. Dougan repeatedly clashed with superiors and colleagues, facing numerous internal investigations that he said were retaliatory because he objected to police misconduct, including instances of racial bias.

In 2009, he moved briefly to Windham, Maine, to work in another small-town police department. There he faced a complaint of sexual harassment that resulted in his dismissal before he completed his probationary period.

Mr. Dougan started a website called WindhamTalk to defend himself. The website foreshadowed others he would create, including one devoted to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, PBSOTalk.

After moving back to Florida, he used PBSOTalk to torment in particular the department’s elected sheriff, Ric L. Bradshaw, whom he accused of corruption. He posted the unlawful recordings of “Jessica” chatting with a former detective commander, Mark Lewis, who, Mr. Dougan claimed, was investigating the sheriff’s critics, including himself. As Mr. Dougan acknowledged in a video interview last year, it is illegal in Florida to record a telephone conversation without permission.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office, Therese C. Barbera, said Mr. Dougan was “a wanted felon for cyberstalking using unsubstantiated and fabricated claims that have NO factual basis.”

In February 2016, PBSOTalk posted confidential information about thousands of police officers, federal agents and judges. The next month, F.B.I. agents and local police officers searched Mr. Dougan’s home, seizing all of his electronic equipment.

Fearing arrest, he said, he made his way to Canada and caught a flight to Moscow. He was indicted on the 21 Florida felony charges the next year.

Peddling Russia Propaganda

In Russia, Mr. Dougan refashioned himself as a kind of journalist, documenting his travels around the country, including Lake Baikal in Siberia and Crimea, the peninsula in Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014 in violation of international law.

He posted photographs and videos from those trips on YouTube, which suspended his channel after NewsGuard’s report last year. He also appeared regularly on state media, including with two former intelligence operatives, Maria Butina , who penetrated Republican political circles, and Anna Chapman , one of 10 spies who inspired the television series “The Americans.”

In 2021, as Mr. Putin began mobilizing the military forces that would invade Ukraine, Mr. Dougan posted a video that the Kremlin would cite as one justification for its attack. In it, he claimed that the United States operated biological weapons factories in Ukraine, an accusation that Russia and its allies have pushed without ever providing evidence .

Once the war started, Mr. Dougan recounted in his written responses to questions, he traveled to Ukraine 14 times to report from the Russian side of the front lines. He appeared in Russian government hearings purporting to expose Ukraine’s transgressions, indicating some level of cooperation with the government authorities.

He has faced criticism for the reports, including in a profile in The Daily Beast, that he posted on YouTube and other platforms. Mr. Dougan has portrayed the war much as Russia’s propaganda has: as a righteous battle against neo-Nazis backed by a decadent West, led by the United States and NATO.

“The West has consistently lied about every aspect of this conflict,” he wrote. “Why does only one side get to tell their story?”

Fake News Sites in the U.S.

In April 2021, Mr. Dougan revived a website called DC Weekly, which had been created four years earlier and published fake articles about the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. According to a report last December by Clemson’s Media Forensics Hub, the domain and internet protocol address were shared by PBSOTalk and Mr. Dougan’s personal website, as well as two marketing books he wrote in exile and a security firm he operated, Falcon Eye Tech, which offered “offshore security monitoring services.”

After Russia’s assault on Ukraine began in 2022, the site carried articles about the war.

Then, last August, the site began to publish articles based on elaborate fabrications that the Western government officials and disinformation researchers said came from Russia’s propaganda units. They often appeared first in videos or audio recordings on obscure X accounts or YouTube channels, then spread to sites like DC Weekly and then to Russian state media as if they were authentic accusations, a process researchers call “narrative laundering.”

The baseless narratives included claims that relatives or cronies of Ukraine’s leader secretly bought luxury properties, yachts or jewelry, and that Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles III of Britain, had abducted and abused children during a secret visit to Ukraine.

Dozens of new sites have appeared in recent months. They included ones made to look like local news outlets: The Chicago Chronicle, The Miami Chronicle, The Boston Times, The Flagstaff Post and The Houston Post. Some hijacked names of actual news organizations, like The San Francisco Chronicle, or approximated them, in the case of one called The New York News Daily.

When The New York Times reported on the new sites in March, DC Weekly published a lengthy response in a stilted style that indicated the use of artificial intelligence. It was written under the name Jessica Devlin, one of the fictitious journalists on the site. “I’m not a shadowy foreign actor,” the article said.

At the end, the article invited media inquiries at an email address with the domain Falcon Eye Tech.

Two days later, Mr. Dougan answered.

103 New Sites in Two Days

Mr. Dougan, who became a Russian citizen last year and voted in the country’s presidential election in March, said in his messages to The Times that he made a living by selling security devices he designed for a manufacturer in China. He denied being paid by any Russian authorities, claiming he funds his activities himself.

His friend Mr. Lambiet, a private investigator and former journalist, said he considered Mr. Dougan a good man but cautioned that Mr. Dougan had a propensity to make things up. “He’s like a Russian disinformation campaign: It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not,” he said.

As evidence of Mr. Dougan’s role in the news sites has emerged, he has shifted tactics. Recorded Future, the threat intelligence company, released a report this month that detailed his ties to agencies linked to the Russian disinformation. The report documented the extensive use of A.I., which one of the company’s researchers, Clément Briens, estimated made Mr. Dougan’s work far cheaper than hiring a troll army.

At the time, Recorded Future identified 57 domains that Mr. Dougan had created. In a two-day span after the report was published, 103 new sites appeared, all on a server in California.

“He’s trying to obfuscate the Russian links,” Mr. Briens said.

Mr. Dougan at times treats his activities as a game of cat and mouse. He spent months engaging with a researcher at NewsGuard, McKenzie Sadeghi, revealing details of his life in Moscow while mocking her boss, Mr. Brill.

“He seemed to be toying with me, both to elicit my responses and, it seemed, to show off his talent for global online mischief, without actually admitting anything,” she wrote in the report published on Wednesday.

While Mr. Dougan’s sites have focused on Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine, the researchers and government officials say he has laid the foundation for interference in the unusually large confluence of elections taking place around the world this year.

This suggests a “risk of an expanded operation scope in the near future, potentially targeting diverse audiences and democratic systems in Europe and other Western nations for various strategic objectives,” the diplomatic service of the European Union wrote in a report last month when the network included only 23 websites.

In recent weeks, the sites have included themes that seem intended to stoke the partisan fires in the United States before November’s presidential election.

Last month, articles appeared on two of Mr. Dougan’s newer fake sites, The Houston Post and The Flagstaff Post, detailing a baseless claim that the F.B.I. had planted an eavesdropping device in Mr. Trump’s office at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Some of the new sites have names, like Right Review and Red State Report, that suggest a conservative political bent. In April, a site that researchers also linked to Mr. Dougan offered “major cryptocurrency rewards” for leaks of information about American officials, singling out two prosecutors and a judge involved in the criminal cases against Mr. Trump.

“If the site was mine,” he wrote in response to a question about it, “I would want people to give documents on any dirty politician, Republican, Democrat or other.”

Steven Lee Myers covers misinformation and disinformation from San Francisco. Since joining The Times in 1989, he has reported from around the world, including Moscow, Baghdad, Beijing and Seoul. More about Steven Lee Myers

Vantage Travel is negotiating a sale of the company amid cancellations

Vantage Travel, the Boston company that has canceled numerous cruises since April and come under fierce criticism from customers for long-delayed refunds, is negotiating for the sale of the company, the company said in an e-mail to The Boston Globe on Tuesday.

“At this time, Vantage Deluxe World Travel is engaged in sensitive negotiations for a sale of the company,” Rossella Mercuri, Vantage general counsel, said in the e-mail.

“Our primary goal is to obtain the best outcome for our customers. Confidentiality agreements governing our negotiations prevent us from disclosing additional information at this time,” she wrote.

Vantage, a Boston travel mainstay that has run luxury ocean and river cruises around the world for 40 years, made the statement in response to repeated inquiries from the Globe after a new raft of cruise cancellations.

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On late Monday afternoon, the Globe sent Vantage a copy of a purported internal memo saying the company was suspending trips for three months. The Globe asked three top company executives to confirm the memo’s authenticity and explain what was going on at Vantage.

Vantage did not comment directly on the purported internal memo, but acknowledged on Tuesday that it was responding after the Globe had “reached out regarding our company.”

The purported internal memo surfaced on June 2 on Consumer Rescue , a consumer advocacy website. Michelle Couch-Friedman, who operates the website, sent a copy of the five-sentence memo to the Globe on Monday.

The purported internal memo, apparently sent to Vantage employees on June 1, said the company had to postpone departures over the next 90 days “in light of our impending transaction.”

“The departures through 8/28 will be postponed,” it said.

The purported memo also said Vantage had decided to dock two of its ships — “the Ocean Vessels” — in Caen, France, “until we have a better idea of the timeline for restarting operations.”

The purported memo was signed by Deirdre Dirkman, Vantage executive vice president for operations and marketing.

Two of Vantage’s ships, Ocean Explorer and the Ocean Odyssey, are now docked in Caen, France, according to the online cruise tracking website cruisemapper.com .

Jim Terry, of Concord, said he was scheduled to board the Ocean Explorer on June 12 in Ireland for a now-canceled cruise circumnavigating Ireland. He sent the Globe a copy of the June 3 cancellation notice he received from Vantage.

“Unfortunately, Vantage has to cancel your upcoming journey due to operational reasons,” the notice says. “We understand this is not what you had planned and we deeply regret having to cancel it. "

The notice goes on to provide several options for jilted would-be travelers like Terry to choose from, including rebooking trips with a “$500 per person future trip credit” or accepting a refund.

Another would-be traveler, Pat Allaire, of New York, said she was scheduled to board the Ocean Odyssey on June 18 in England for a now-canceled cruise to France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Scandinavia.

The cancellation notice she received from Vantage on June 3 was virtually identical to the one Terry received.

During the pandemic, Vantage came under heavy criticism from travelers for long delays in receiving refunds for canceled trips, according to a 2021 Globe story .

As of this month, the office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell had received more than 800 complaints about Vantage, dating back to 2020, mostly for refunds after cancellations. That office has secured refunds for more than 80 consumers for a total of more than $1.2 million, according to the attorney general’s office.

In late 2021, Vantage launched the $70 million Ocean Explorer in Boston Harbor. That prompted the 2021 Globe story about two local couples who said it irritated them that the company made a fancy display of christening the ship with a bottle of champagne when the couples had been fighting for about 18 months for $46,000 owed to them by Vantage for a canceled safari to Africa. After the Globe asked questions, Vantage refunded the couples’ money.

Since late April, more than a dozen people have complained to the Globe about last-minute cancellations of trips long planned and fully paid for.

“We were very much looking forward to the trip,” Allaire said on Monday.

Vantage’s cancellations became public in late April, when a would-be traveler contacted the Globe to complain that her planned trip in Europe had been abruptly canceled by Vantage less than two days before it was set to begin.

Vantage responded to Globe questions at the time by saying the company had experienced a “data security incident” and had hired a “leading national forensic firm” to investigate.

That data security incident knocked out the company’s website and call center, leaving many booked travelers unable to confirm their trips.

On its Facebook page, Vantage said: “We’re currently experiencing a network disruption that has limited our abilities to access our network and impacted our ability to perform certain operational tasks. We are working around the clock to restore normal business operations.”

A follow-up Globe story quoted other would-be passengers saying their trips were abruptly cancelled too, but not due to the data security incident. (Vantage later said no cancellations were related to the data security incident.) One jilted traveler said Vantage cited the boat not being ready as reason for cancellation, while another said Vantage cited security concerns on the ground in the Middle East.

Vantage restored its website and call center about a week later.

But more cancellations continued in May and into June.

How the negotiations over a sale may affect refunds is uncertain. Some people who are owed money said they hoped a sale may prompt a quicker refund from whoever operates the travel company.

Most travel insurance policies cover trips that are canceled due to the cruise operator ceasing operation, Couch-Friedman said.

Got a problem? Send your consumer issue to [email protected] . Follow him @spmurphyboston .