Orlando, FL – A Volusia County man gets 7 years and 3 months in federal prison for running a timeshare phone scam that stole $1.6 million from its victims.
29-year-old Mark Gardner was facing up to 30 years in prison prior to Friday’s sentencing hearing in an Orlando federal courtroom.
Gardner entered a guilty plea last August on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to the United States Department of Justice.
Gardner – an Osteen resident – and 33-year-old Tammie Lynn Cline of Leominster, Massachusetts were indicted in January for operating a “boiler room” that scammed timeshare owners looking to sell their property.
Cline was sentenced in November to 2 years and 6 months in federal lockup and has to pay back over $1.2 million to the victims. Gardner also has to pay the same amount, according to DOJ.
DOJ officials say Gardner and Cline hired a team of telemarketers based in Central Florida to make unsolicited calls to timeshare owners throughout the country, claiming to work for Oregon-based Universal Timeshare Sales Associates.
According to the indictment, Gardner and Cline would tell the timeshare owners that UTSA had someone interested in buying their timeshare and that they would arrange the sale of that timeshare for a fee, usually between $1,600 and $2,200.
Prosecutors say Gardner, Cline and their telemarketers would sometimes claim that the person interested in buying was in their showroom, that the buyer already handed down a deposit or that the sale would take place in about 90 days.
DOJ says those timeshares were never sold and that Gardner and Cline would deny or ignore refund requests after they pocketed the fee. They also say that Gardner and Cline would dispute chargebacks requested by their victims to their credit card companies.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Attorney General’s Office filed a civil action against Gardner and Cline in May 2013. A permanent injunction forcing them to stop certain telemarketing practices was filed in federal court in June 2014.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.