BEVERLY — Three more people have been indicted in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraudulent MBTA pass scheme based in Beverly, and there are new charges for the alleged mastermind, prosecutors announced yesterday.
Andres Townes, already under indictment on charges of larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny, now faces three additional counts of conspiracy to commit receiving stolen property as a result of indictments handed up against him and three others yesterday by a statewide grand jury.
Townes, 27, of Revere, worked at Beverly's Cubic Transportation Systems, a company under contract to handle the creation and sales of MBTA passes, prosecutors said. While working there, Townes used his access to the machine that produced the passes to create at least 20,000 fraudulent passes before his arrest last May.
Also charged at that time was Gloria Escobar, 27, who lived with Townes at the time.
Yesterday, three others were indicted on charges of conspiracy and receiving stolen property: Alex Saunders, 28, of Beverly; Joceline Townes, 41, of Attleboro; and Susan Gillis, 46, of Foxborough.
Prosecutors allege that Saunders, Gillis and Joceline Townes all had arrangements with Andres Townes to sell the passes he was producing, then split the proceeds with him.
The group would advertise the passes, with face values of up to $250, on Craigslist, at a price below what a commuter would pay if purchasing real passes from the MBTA.
Andres Townes was collecting thousands of dollars a month from the other defendants, prosecutors allege, over a period between November 2007 and last spring, when the scheme was uncovered. The passes that were sold would have been worth millions to the T, prosecutors say.
Investigators also discovered that Townes had generated $2 million in passes that had been dated and activated for use in the future, up to November 2012.
"Corruption of this nature deceives consumers and undermines the taxpayers," Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a press release announcing the new indictments. Coakley also said the investigation is ongoing.
Townes, who has been in custody on a reduced $15,000 bail, is due in Salem Superior Court along with Escobar on Wednesday for a status hearing on their earlier charges.
An arraignment date on the new indictments has not been set.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis may be reached at 978-338-2521 or jmanganis@salemnews.com.
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