Utah travel agent accused of fleeing the country after not booking trips, not refunding money

AMERICAN FORK — An Eagle Mountain woman who was supposed to be booking vacations for clients and allegedly fled to Australia to avoid prosecution — leaving customers without their trips and tens of thousands of dollars spent on them — is now facing nearly a dozen felony charges.

Josephine Ranae Bangerter, 35, whose last known address was in Eagle Mountain, was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, two counts of communications fraud, two counts of unlawful use of a bank card, theft, and issuing a bad check, second-degree felonies; and two counts of communications fraud, forgery, and theft, third-degree felonies.

Multiple victims reported using the travel service company, Book Your Bucket List, LLC, and working with Bangerter, according to charging documents.

"These vacations were either never paid for by the company or were booked to the wrong location, leading to the victims asking for refunds which were never given. Other victims reported they made investments into the company and gave loans to Bangerter, to keep the business operating. Bangerter told the investors they could get their money back but never did," the charges state.

Other victims reported booking a trip with Bangerter and later discovering unauthorized charges on their credit card used to book the trip, according to charging documents.

One woman reported investing $12,000 into Book Your Bucket List in 2019 but asked a few months later to withdraw her money from the company and has yet to be paid back, the charges state.

Another woman told investigators she believed she had purchased two tickets to Sweden through Bangerter.

"When attempting to check in for their purchased flight, they were told no tickets were ever purchased to Sweden. Bangerter told them she fixed this issue the day of their flight, and even sent (screenshots) of the alleged flights," the charges read. "These turned out to just (be) screen shots of the Google flights screen and not actual itineraries. When they got to the airport, the airline informed them (their) tickets were to New York and not Sweden."

Another victim reported that she booked a trip with Bangerter in 2019 but later found unauthorized charges on her bank card used to book the trip. Investigators say the victim's card "was used without authorization for a total of over $8,400" and that the trip the victim thought she had paid for wasn't reserved, so "she had to pay for everything again. This total was over $11,000 in purchases," the charges state. The unauthorized charges included plane tickets for multiple trips, according to the charges. Bangerter claimed that "an ex-employee had hacked the system."

Another woman, who said she had been friends with Bangerter since high school, used her credit card to book a trip to China, only to "later discover that her credit card was being used to make over $30,000 in unauthorized purchases," charging documents state. Bangerter told the woman "it was a mistake, and she would send checks to reimburse her money back." But when the woman received two checks totaling $30,000, "both of these checks bounced, and she has since lost any contact with Bangerter."

Another man reported that more than $40,000 in unauthorized purchases were made on his credit card and "they were all travel-related" expenses, the charges state. Bangerter refunded the man about $25,000.

In 2019, when American Fork police informed Bangerter that they would be sending their case to the Utah County Attorney's Office to be screened for possible charges, investigators say she fled to Australia.

"It is believed she fled to avoid prosecution. In checking her visa and passport status, Bangerter left the United States of America at the end of 2019 and has not left Australia and has never returned to Utah or the United States since," the charging documents state. "Bangerter fleeing Utah to avoid prosecution, puts a hold on any ongoing investigation, and tolls the statute of limitations on the possible related charges. Due to Bangerter being in Australia, we are unable to serve her a summons. The U.S. (Marshals) Service as of September 2026, (is) still advised of her location in Australia."

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