Friday past saw another timeshare fraudster jailed in Florida. Rani F. Khoury of Apopo, Khoury will spend the next 8 years behind bars after scamming over 5,000 victims out of their money in a promise to sell their timeshare. Khoury is linked to the convicted conman Fabien C. Fleifel of Winter Springs, along with ten others in this scam.
Last July saw the nine day trial of Fleifel concluded, where the jury finally convicted him on one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud, nineteen counts of mail fraud telemarketing; and six counts of wire fraud telemarketing. The jury also concluded that the conspiracy count affected a financial institution and the wire fraud and mail fraud counts were in connection with the conduct of telemarketing that victimized ten or more persons over the age of 55.
Fleifel was sentenced for up to 14 years last year for multiple fraud convictions as well as a $1 million fine on the conspiracy conviction and 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the other 25 convictions.
Khoury, who pleaded guilty from the beginning to having a hand in the timeshare scam, in which Feifel hired telemarketers to cold call timeshare property owners offering them potential buyers at a cost. Khoury and his team took these payments believed to be as much as $10 million from the timeshare owners before any sale was ever made of the victims timeshares. None of the 5,000 plus victims, most over the age of 55 sold their timeshare using this scam.
Khoury kept his plea of guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, having to forfeit property in Orlando, Florida and was sentenced to 97 months in jail and ordered to repay a sum of nearly $1.6 million in compensation to the victims of the scam.
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