More Sentenced in New Jersey-Based Timeshare Fraud Scam
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Three former employees of the Vacation Ownership Group in New Jersey were sentenced last Friday by a federal judge for their part in a timeshare fraud ring that duped timeshare owners out of approximately three million dollars. They are the latest to join a group of executives and high-level employees from the group recently sentenced to imprisonment.
Jeffrey Sawyer, Aimee Allen, and Vincent Giordano were all sentenced to various time in jail or house arrest for their actions in the scam. All three pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud.
While at Vacation Ownership Group, Allen and Giordano were responsible for finding timeshare owners and contacting them with special refinancing offers on their vacation properties. They mislead the victims by stating they worked with banks to eliminate timeshare mortgages at discounted rates, while the company actually had no authority or means to do so. Sawyer pretended to be an existing customer who talked victims into sending the organization tens of thousands of dollars at a time.
Sawyer was sentenced to one year in prison with three years of supervised release. Allen received three years probation with eight months under house arrest, while Giordano received four months in prison, four months of house arrest, 200 hours of community service, and three years of supervised release.
These sentencings have not been the first from the fraudulent Vacation Ownership Group. CEO Adam Lacerda was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in heading the timeshare fraud scam. His wife and COO of the company, Ashley Lacerda, was also sentenced to a six year term. Another high-level employee, Ian Resnick, received an 18 year sentence.
The news out of New Jersey is a reminder to timeshare owners across the country to always be wary of timeshare fraud scams. If a representative calls you without prompt and makes an offer too good to be true, it probably is. Before investing money or paying for a service, all timeshare owners should do proper research into the company in question, and check for verified reviews from trusted sources.
Read more about the Vacation Ownership Group scam and the employee sentencings.
