California Man Receives 30-Month Sentence For Telemarketing Scheme

Orlando, FL – U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton, Jr. today sentenced Naif Wedad Nazer (39, Laguna Niguel, CA) to two years and six months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The Court also ordered Nazer to forfeit $811,162.06, the proceeds of the offense. 

Nazer had pleaded guilty on June 20, 2018.

According to court documents, between 2011 and 2015, Nazer founded and operated a series of 10 different businesses, each of which engaged in cold-calling timeshare owners across the United States and fraudulently inducing them to pay advance fees for services that the businesses never intended to render. Specifically, Nazer, and others that he recruited for this scheme, made a series of false claims to victims, including that Nazer’s businesses:

• would help the owner market his or her timeshare;
• had identified buyers to purchase the timeshare;
• would facilitate the sale of the timeshare; and
• would refund the advance fee within a prescribed time period if the timeshare sale did not go through.

Victims of this fraud conspiracy were located throughout the United States.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Emily C. L. Chang.