Florida Man Sentenced For Telemarketing Fraud

Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that Nathan Christian, 31, of Boynton Beach, FL, was sentenced in the United States District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois on his conviction for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with telemarketing, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349. Christian was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. The court also ordered Christian to pay a $1,000 fine and a $100 special assessment.

Christian was a "Closer" at C&G Marketing Associates, LLC, also known as Premier Timeshare Solutions (PTS). Closers are telemarketers who "close the deals" with the victims. The PTS closers earned commissions that were based upon the volume of sales made.

PTS operated out of offices located in southern Florida. The company targeted owners of timeshares throughout the United States and Canada who wished to sell their timeshares. By falsely representing that PTS had located buyers who were interested in purchasing the victims’ timeshares, the closers convinced the victims to pay upfront fees of approximately $2,000 to PTS. During the lifespan of the scam, PTS defrauded over 7,000 people out of approximately $14.5 million. Victims were located throughout the United States and Canada.

This prosecution is one of more than 50 timeshare resale fraud prosecutions brought in the Southern District of Illinois over the past four years. The case is part of an ongoing investigation by the St. Louis Field Office of the Chicago Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service. Both the Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Florida Department of Agriculture have assisted in the investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Scott Verseman and Michael Hallock.