The TCA reported back in June 2015 of a pending Timeshare Fraud case that has finally reached the courts for hearing;
On 22nd April a New Jersey man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the $3 million timeshare conspiracy scam.
The scam consisted of timeshare owners being offered a phony consultation service by Vacation Ownership Group LLC.
The New Jersey man was identified as 41 year old, Ian Resnick. Resnick had previously been convicted in September 2013 on one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud. He was convicted following a seven-week trial in Camden federal court.
According to the documents filed in this case and the evidence presented at trial:
Resnick and his codefendants schemed to defraud hundreds of timeshare owners by offering fraudulent consulting services through their company, the Vacation Ownership Group (now VO Financial). Adam Lacerda, the company founder, president and chief executive officer, devised the company’s fraudulent sales pitches. He directed his sales force to tell numerous lies to VO customers, including that VO worked with the banks holding the customers’ loans, would use money sent by customers to pay off the customers’ loans on their timeshares, and could cancel customers’ timeshares with money back.
His wife, Ashley Lacerda, the company vice president and chief operating officer, sent fraudulent contracts to customers and managed the office. Resnick, a convicted bank robber, started as a salesman giving the fraudulent sales pitch but became Adam Lacerda’s enforcer, with the title “director of compliance.” Genevieve Manzoni, was a top VO sales representative who falsely told one victim she worked with a bank, another victim that she worked with a timeshare developer.
14 victims testified at the hearing, including business executives, veterans, senior citizens, a lawyer and a professor, who were all defrauded out of tens of thousands of dollars by the defendants’ scheme.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Hillman sentenced Resnick to three years of supervised release.
Adam Lacerda was sentenced to 27 years in prison on 25th June 2015. Ashley Lacerda is scheduled to be sentenced 3rd June 2016 and Manzoni was sentenced in December 2015 to 42 months in prison.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk