Three Men Arrested in Timeshare Conspiracy

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and Daniel C. Alexander, Chief of Police, Boca Raton Police Department, announced the arrest of defendants James Michael Tomasso, Wensley Robin McFarlane, and Nicholas Charles Higgins, of Palm Beach County, for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349.

According to the criminal complaint filed with the court, the defendants were engaged in a scheme to defraud timeshare owners of thousands of dollars. Operating under the names of Euroamerican Timeshares, LLC.; E.A.T. Sales, LLC.; National Timeshare Liquidators, LLC.; and Real Estate Purchasing Syndicate, LLC., the defendants and others would call timeshare owners outside of Florida and offer to purchase their timeshare on condition that the timeshare owner/seller would send them thousands of dollars in up-front fees. The owners were promised that the fees would be returned to them at the closing. No purchases or sales ever occurred. These fees were simply split amongst the various telemarketers involved in the fraud. To further the scheme, the names of the companies involved frequently changed. This permitted the “new” company to re-solicit the timeshare owner. In total, this scheme took in over three $3 million.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI and the Boca Raton Police Department, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Kerry Baron, who is prosecuting this case.

A complaint is only an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.