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State and local prosecutors are now investigating Discovery Tours after taking students' money

The Ohio Attorney General's office and several county prosecutors are now investigating complaints against Discovery Tours after several planned trips school trips have either been canceled or put in jeopardy.

Pressure is mounting against the owners of Discovery Tours, the travel group that took hundreds of thousands of dollars from Ohio school districts for upcoming trips, yet abruptly closed their doors.

Now, law enforcement has gotten involved, which could spell big trouble for the company.

When we showed up at the offices of Discovery Tours in Mayfield Village, Vice President Joe Cipolletti told us, “at this time we have no further comment.”

Well, he can run from us, but he can't hide from prosecutors who are hot on his trail looking into the dozens of complaints filed by school districts across the state. A number that keeps growing.

"In terms of the financial picture I don't know all of the itineraries but just looking at the Mentor group alone, it is quite a large number," said Carylann Assante of the Student and Youth Travel Association, where Discovery was a member.

And she’s right. We’re talking nearly $7 million dollars large, if it involves as many school districts as she says she heard from.

It's why prosecutors in Geauga and Summit Counties have opened investigations, asking parents to keep all documents and receipts associated with the trip.

"Anyone who takes deposits and doesn't use it for the purposes intended, has stolen that property, that money, and that's called theft by deception," said Attorney Joseph Diemert.

Diemert has been a Law Director and Prosecutor for 15 Ohio municipalities over the past 30 years. He says crimes involving this kind of money can carry sentences of up to 36 yeas, unless they didn't do it on purpose.

"Some people will just go through bankruptcy court and say I took your money but I didn't misspend it. I didn't convert it to my own use. I tried to make my business work and my business didn't work. That’s not a crime," Diemert said.

But we found, that last year, when we first saw complaints about the Discovery, they incorporated a new company, New Destinations.

Its address is listed as this Richmond Heights home, owned by Alfred Cicolletti - also a principal in Discovery Tours.

And if prosecutors like the Ohio Attorney General, which is now looking into more than 170 complaints, find that new company was an attempt to hide money, Diemert tells us,"We're talking serious penalties.”

Now, what does that mean for parents out all of that money?

If they paid by credit card, they're almost always covered if they call to dispute the charge with the card issuer. With a debit card, getting money back depends on the bank, and they should contact them immediately.

For check or cash payments, forget it, unless the company is successfully prosecuted and they have assets. That could take a long time to work out.

MORE | Problems mount for student travel group Discovery Tours

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