Troy Benjamin Bittner, a 55-year-old resident of Myrtle Beach, was sentenced today to 37 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and filing a false tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Dawson, III sentenced Bittner to serve 37 months behind bars, followed by a three-year term of supervised release.
The investigation revealed that from November 2020 to December 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bittner was employed as the general manager at Carolina Pines RV Resort in Conway. During this period, Bittner fraudulently issued over $828,000 in refunds for reservations that were neither authorized by guests nor requested, the department confirmed.
Bittner transferred these unauthorized refunds to his personal bank accounts, further deceiving the resort and its guests. In addition to the fraudulent refunds, he also stole cash from the resort’s cloud-based point-of-sale system and recorded it as refunds.
Bittner also faced charges for filing false tax returns for the years 2020 and 2021, where he substantially underreported his income, leading to a tax loss of $281,727. As part of his sentencing, Bittner was ordered to pay restitution of $1,219,894.72.