A former Expedia employee was sentenced Friday in King County Superior Court to four years in prison after pleading guilty last month to voyeurism charges for placing spy cameras in Expedia office bathrooms and his ex-wife's home.
Marcelo Vargas-Fernandez, now 44, was arrested almost two years ago outside his Lynnwood apartment after an employee discovered a hidden camera in the bathroom at Expedia's then-newly built corporate campus in Seattle's Interbay neighborhood.
King County prosecutors initially charged Vargas-Fernandez with four counts of first-degree voyeurism in February 2024 after a monthslong investigation by Seattle police. He had placed the spy cameras under sinks and aimed at toilets in two all-gender, single-user bathrooms between Dec. 4, 2023, and Jan. 11, 2024, according to court documents.
Prosecutors eventually amended charges, hitting Vargas-Fernandez with 14 counts of first-degree voyeurism. During sentencing, prosecutors said those counts were based on specific recordings and still images targeting 14 identifiable people. However, after reviewing substantial evidence recovered from Vargas-Fernandez, prosecutors said the number of victims is much higher.
In addition to the four years in prison, a King County Superior Court judge ordered Vargas-Fernandez to serve one year of community custody and to pay an undetermined restitution to victims.
The judge's order met prosecutor recommendations.
One of the charges includes domestic violence as one of the people he filmed was his ex-wife, according to court documents. Vargas-Fernandez was also charged with two protection order violations for trying to contact his ex-wife after he was arrested. A 364-day sentence for violating protection orders will run concurrently with his four-year sentence.
Employees who spotted cameras on Expedia's campus reported them to security two months before Vargas-Fernandez was arrested, according to a class-action lawsuit filed last year against Securitas, the security firm contracted with Expedia.
Attorneys with Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, on behalf of the victims, accused Securitas of recklessly mishandling reports from employees in December 2023 and not taking action to remove cameras until mid-January 2024, when law enforcement was notified.
A trial for that lawsuit is scheduled for May 2027.
Court documents from the class-action lawsuit say an employee first notified security officers on Dec. 3, 2023, telling them that devices that looked like cameras were attached underneath a sink in a bathroom. After filing a report, two security officers inspected the bathroom and the one next to it, finding cameras in both, according to court documents. They took photos of both bathrooms but did not remove the cameras.
Documents filed in the criminal case against Vargas-Fernandez say that he removed the cameras after they were discovered and waited a month to put them back.
Once they were found again on Jan. 11, 2024, employees notified security, who then contacted Seattle police. On surveillance footage, police saw Vargas-Fernandez entering the bathrooms while holding items that looked like the devices found under the sinks, according to court documents from the civil lawsuit.
Police arrested Vargas-Fernandez that February, obtained a search warrant for his home, and found 33 additional cameras, 22 memory cards and six hard drives. After a sweep of Expedia’s grounds, officers found cameras in five other bathrooms and underneath multiple workstations.
Expedia closed the campus shortly after Vargas-Fernandez's arrest to enhance security, GeekWire reported in 2024.
Expedia is committed to protecting the privacy, safety, and security of our employees and guests across all offices," a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement after the sentencing. "We fully cooperated with law enforcement throughout this investigation and are pleased that our support contributed to holding the individual accountable.
Securitas did not respond to requests for comment.
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