U.S. Department
of Justice
United States Of America Vs. Joel Intravaia United States District Court For The Southern District Of Illinois Criminal No.: 11-30138-MJR
RECENT EVENTS: Joel Intravaia, 29, of Lighthouse Point, Florida, was sentenced on December 9, 2011, in the Courtroom of Judge Michael J. Reagan to 60 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years supervised release. Intravaia was also sentenced to 150 hours of community service.
On August 19, 2011, JOEL INTRAVAIA, aged 29, of Lighthouse Point, Florida, pleaded guilty to a one count criminal information charging him with one count of CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MAIL FRAUD AND WIRE FRAUD. The plea was entered in East St. Louis, Illinois.
The information alleges that INTRAVAIA was one of the owners and managers of one of the telemarketing rooms that operated under the Creative Vacation Solutions umbrella. The criminal information alleges that his telemarketing room, called “Lakeworth 1" and operating in Lakeworth, Florida, bilked approximately 1512 victims of approximately $2.2 million. In previous court filings related to the Universal Marketing Solutions/Creative Vacation Solutions scam, the government has alleged that the overall scam bilked over 22,000 victims of $30 million dollars. Previous court filings have also alleged that the scam victimized consumers in all fifty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, all ten Canadian provinces and the Northwest Territory of Canada. There were at least 54 victims in twenty eight (28) of the thirty eight (38) counties comprising the Southern District of Illinois
The criminal information alleges that telemarketers for Creative Vacation Solutions placed cold calls to timeshare owners and then falsely represented that their company had actual buyers for the owners’ timeshare property. Telemarketers then solicited advanced fees of up to several thousand dollars from each victim in purported closing costs that they promised would be refunded to the owner once the closing on the property occurred. Many timeshare owners were told that their closings were scheduled within the next sixty to ninety days. Despite collecting fees from 22,000 victims, these companies were not successful in selling a single timeshare unit, the Indictment alleges. Defendants and their co-conspirators, the Indictment alleges, simply pocketed the closing costs.
Defendant faces a penalty of up to 25 years imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to five years. His sentencing is scheduled for December 9, 2011 in East St. Louis, Illinois.
The guilty plea follows an investigation by the St. Louis Field Office of the Chicago Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service which was assisted by the Boynton Beach (Florida) Police Department and the Florida Attorney General’s office. The prosecution of the case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce E. Reppert
