An investigation has been launched into the disastrous series of reality-TV-themed cruises that were to be hosted by Showroom Travel Agency.

The Sheriff’s Office of Cook County, Georgia, released a statement on Tuesday alerting the public that the company may have committed illegal acts. The cruises were officially cancelled earlier this week after the owner of Showroom Travel admitted to being out of money after using profits from one cruise to pay for another.

The cancellation came after The Challenge stars Johnny Bananas and Mark Long exposed that something fishy was going on with the company.

“The Cook County Sherriff’s Office has been made aware of possible criminal activity surrounding the company Showroom Travel Agency LLC,” the press release states.

As The Ashley previously told you, the casts of The Challenge, Teen Mom, Floribama Shore and other reality TV shows were due to take part in these “fan” cruises setting sail between November and May 2026.

The Cook County Sherriff’s Office encouraged anyone who paid a deposit for a cruise or was negatively affected by the situation to call them and speak with the Investigative Assistants.

The Sherriff’s Office stated that it “has been working diligently with the assistance of the contracted employees of Showroom Travel to gather as much information as possible.”

It also made it clear that the Sherriff’s Office can’t help recover lost funds, and is only investigating the possible criminal activity committed by Showroom Travel.

The casts of the shows had been actively promoting the cruises up until very recently. On Monday, ‘Challenge’ stars Johnny Bananas and Mark Long exposed the possible scam happening and announced that they would no longer be going on the cruise.

In a statement posted to social media, Johnny and Mark stated that the company’s owner committed acts that were “potentially criminal” and “fraudulent” in nature.

Other ‘Challenge’ stars, as well as ‘Teen Mom’ people and the ‘Floribama Shore’ cast, followed soon after with statements of their own, announcing they, too, were bailing out of the cruises because it was shady.

After the reality stars publicly accused him of fraud, Mike Gibson– the owner of Showroom Travel Agency— issued his own statement, promising that all cruisers would be given refunds and apologizing for what happened.

In a new interview with Star, Johnny revealed that he realized that something was amiss with the cruise company when he and Mark approached the owner Mike about some concerning information they heard from a reality star who had done a previous cruise with Showroom Travel and claimed they had to “threaten” Mike to pay them.

Johnny told the magazine that he was assured by Mike that all was well, but soon found out that the cast members’ hotel rooms had not been booked yet, and he had not been paid, despite his contract stipulating that he get his money before leaving for the cruise.

Johnny claimed that when he confronted Mike about getting paid, he was given the runaround and told Mike had been in a car accident.

“As somebody who’s been around the block and knows a f**king scam when I see one, if I’m owed a large sum of money and somebody that was supposed to pay me can’t because they’ve been in an accident— red flag,” Johnny told Star.

Johnny stated that he then went to his ‘Challenge’ co-stars who were scheduled to go on the cruise with him and told them what he knew.

“I feel like he probably spent our money, can’t pay us and is just trying to just avoid us or buy time,” Johnny said, adding that the ‘Challenge’ cast started looking into the company’s history and were disturbed by what they found out.

“There was just insurmountable evidence that this guy was very shady to say the least,” Johnny said. “Not paying employees, not paying some past cast members and being completely unresponsive to us in the past week.”

Johnny claimed that he is assisting the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in its investigation, but feels “personally responsible” for what the ‘Challenge’ fans who booked the cruise are going through.

“I want no part of this operation,” Johnny said. “This is rotten to the core.”

‘Teen Mom’ star Jade Cline recently aired her frustrations with the company as well, responding to comments left on an Instagram post she made earlier this week informing her fans that the ‘Teen Mom’ cruise has been cancelled.

“This is horrible and completely ridiculous,” she told one of her followers. “We all only agreed to do this because of the successful cruises in the past. We are all doing more digging and it’s so predatory to use people in their likeness to commit any type of fraud.”

As of press time, Showroom Travel Agency’s website is no longer active.

The Ashley will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.

RELATED STORY: Cruises with Casts of ‘Teen Mom,’ ‘The Challenge’ & More Cancelled As Casts Accuse Showroom Travel of Fraud

(Photos: MTV, Instagram)