Federal prosecutors have charged the former owner of a Newton tour company with fraud and tax evasion, alleging that he siphoned away more than $2 million in fees for his own expenses.  In court documents filed Friday, the US attorney’s office in Boston said Bret A. Gordon lied to customers of Tom Harper Cruises about where their money had gone and continued collecting payments even though he knew there wasn’t enough in the corporate accounts to cover their trip.  In May 2015, Gordon’s company abruptly canceled a weeklong yacht cruise in Scotland, and some of the people who said they had paid him as much as $18,000 for the trip said they received no explanation or refund from him. His company filed for bankruptcy a few weeks later.  Gordon declined to comment on the charges Friday through his attorney, John S. Day. In a previous interview with the Globe, Gordon denied wrongdoing, saying that Tom Harper Cruises’ bankruptcy was due to canceled tours stemming from the delayed delivery of two chartered boats.  The bankruptcy case against Tom Harper Cruises, however, pointed to a far different reason for the company’s troubles. Stewart F. Grossman, the court-appointed trustee representing creditors in that case, said in court records that Gordon had lost millions of dollars gambling.  In 1996, court records show, Gordon blamed a gambling addiction in pleading guilty to three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property after stealing $130,000 from an employer.  Tom Harper Cruises booked trips on riverboats in such locales as Russia, Scotland, France, Spain, and Vietnam, routing customers to independent tour operators after adding a 25 to 35 percent markup, prosecutors said in court filings Friday.  The federal criminal case outlines payments collected from a half-dozen unnamed victims, in Indiana, California, Virginia, and Tennessee, ranging from about $8,000 to $14,757. Prosecutors also allege that Gordon failed to report payments totaling more than $1 million from Tom Harper Cruises on personal tax returns in 2013 and 2014.  The lawsuit seeks to seize any property that Gordon may have obtained in connection with the alleged scheme if he’s convicted of wire fraud.  Gordon previously agreed to a bankruptcy settlement against Tom Harper Cruises that calls for Gordon to repay more than $2 million, although the trustee wrote that he “is not aware of any resources that Gordon has that would permit him to pay anywhere near” that amount.  After filing for bankruptcy Gordon moved from his Newton residence and was living in Waltham.
Prosecutors say Bret A. Gordon diverted the money from would-be customers of Tom Harper Cruises, a Newton company that arranged riverboat trips around the globe.