A passenger on a Caribbean cruise who jumped overboard to avoid paying off US$16,000 of gambling debt they had accumulated on the ship is facing federal charges.
According to authorities, while docked in Puerto Rico as other passengers were disembarking, Jey Gonzalez-Diaz flung himself off the Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas in an attempt to evade repaying thousands of dollars he owed the cruise line.
The swimming pool deck of Asia’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International’s Rhapsody of the Seas, is seen in January 2008.
K. Y. Cheng / Getty Images
The incident occurred at about 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 7, according to reports by CBS News and the New York Times.
Gonzalez-Diaz was rescued from the water by two passersby, who pulled him onto a jet ski, the U.S. outlets reported.
He was arrested about 30 minutes later by Customs and Border Protection officers and charged with attempting to evade monetary reporting requirements.
It is unclear from which of the ship’s 12 decks Gonzalez-Diaz jumped.
A criminal complaint filed on Sunday in the U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico stated that Gonzalez-Diaz boarded the Rhapsody of the Seas in San Juan on Aug. 31.
Royal Caribbean told authorities that Gonzalez-Diaz booked the trip under the name Jeremy Diaz, and that he owed the cruise $16,710.24.
The debt was “almost exclusively associated to Casino and Gaming expenses,” the complaint said.
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When investigators asked Gonzalez-Diaz for his full name, he reportedly replied, “If you guys were good at your job, you would know that,” the complaint states.
Background checks also revealed that a man named Jeremy Omar Gonzalez-Diaz has been in federal custody in Puerto Rico since January. The accused told investigators that the man in custody was his brother.
Gonzalez-Diaz faces up to $250,000 in fines and a maximum prison sentence of five years if convicted, and was released on bail. A lawyer representing him had no comment.
Last month, a water slide on Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas broke, injuring a guest when an acrylic glass panel fell off while they were going down a water slide.
A cruise ship passenger captured the moment the panel shattered mid-ride, sending a burst of water into a public area of the ship.
The guest received medical attention and was in stable condition, a Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson told CBS News.
The water slide incident occurred just two weeks after a Royal Caribbean crew member jumped overboard to his death on the Icon of the Seas ship after allegedly stabbing a colleague, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
— With files from Global News’ Katie Scott