Las Vegas Fraudster Facing Federal Charges For Multi-Million Dollar Telemarketing Operation

On May 22, 2013, Michael Patrick Sullivan, Jr., 37, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. If convicted, Sullivan is subject to a term of imprisonment of up to 25 years, a fine of $250,000 and five years of supervised release.

The charge arose out of a telemarketing scam which operated in Las Vegas, Nevada, which the indictment alleged bilked over 3,000 victims of approximately 10 million dollars. Consumers were victimized in all fifty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, all ten Canadian provinces and the Northwest Territory of Canada, as well as Australia, Israel and the United Kingdom. There were at least twelve (12) victims in nine (9) of the thirty-eight (38) counties comprising the Southern District of Illinois. The indictment alleges that the scheme operated from December 5, 2006, until January 24, 2012.

The indictment alleges that Sullivan owned a telemarketing company, Vacation Max, which operated a timeshare resale scam. The company purported to be a Georgia corporation located in Delaware, but actually operated in Las Vegas, Nevada. The indictment alleges that the company falsely represented that they had found corporate buyers interested in acquiring blocks of timeshare units including the consumer's timeshare unit for purported business and tax purposes. The company solicited fees of up to several thousand dollars from each timeshare owner in purported pre-paid closing costs and related expenses. The indictment alleges that the purported sales did not occur and that Vacation Max did not successfully sell any consumer’s timeshare interest except a relatively small number at “firesale” prices.

This case is one of several cases recently prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Illinois relating to timeshare resale fraud.

The prosecution of the case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce E. Reppert and Nathan D. Stump.

An indictment is a formal charge against a defendant. Under the law, a defendant is presumed to be innocent of a charge until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to the satisfaction of a jury.