Timeshare owners scammed out of over $18 million by 2 men in fraud scheme, feds say
Two men promised to help timeshare owners rent or share their properties but stole millions of dollars from them instead in a sweeping fraud scheme, according to federal prosecutors.
Jess Kinmont and John P. Wenz Jr.’s scam business — Pro Timeshare Resales, a Florida limited liability company purporting to promote reselling timeshares — defrauded over 8,000 people of more than $18 million, according to information presented before a federal court in Atlanta.
The men, both of Florida, and individuals hired by their business called timeshare owners across the U.S. while reading scripts and told them someone was interested in buying or renting their timeshares, prosecutors said.
The property owners, including several older Americans, were deceived into believing their timeshares would be sold quickly and paid up to $2,500 in up-front fees for the men’s services, according to prosecutors.
However, Kinmont and Wenz’s promises to sell timeshares were false — “they never sold a single timeshare interest during the five years of the scheme’s operation,” prosecutors said.
After the timeshare owners paid the men up-front fees, the men scammed them into paying more money — including “closing costs and other fees” — and assured them they’d receive the money from the timeshare buyer or renter, according to prosecutors.
When the owners demanded refunds, they were ignored, prosecutors said.
Now, a federal judge has sentenced Kinmont, 57, of Port Orange to seven years in prison and Wenz to three years and ten months in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced in an Oct. 18 news release.
Their sentences come after they both separately pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, prosecutors said.
“Kinmont and Wenz deserve their time in federal prison for deceiving elderly Americans trying to get out of timeshares” Samuel Levine, the director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.
As part of their sentences, Kinmont must pay $11,699,376.60 in restitution, and Wenz must pay $4,845,425.88 in restitution, according to prosecutors.
Fritz Scheller, one of the defense attorneys representing Wenz, told McClatchy News in a statement on Oct. 18 that the “court imposed a just sentence” for his client.
Scheller said the court recognized Wenz’s “great remorse, as well as the significant changes he made in his life these past seven years” and added that Wenz “appreciates that the federal prosecutors in this matter litigated this case vigorously but fairly.”
“As a defense attorney, you cannot ask for anything more,” Scheller said.
McClatchy News contacted defense attorneys representing Kinmont on Oct. 18 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
Men had to give up property, a Ferrari, diamond ring and more
Kinmont and Wenz ran their timeshare scheme — which district Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. described as “‘breathtaking’ in scope” at their sentencing hearings — between January 2012 and December 2016, according to prosecutors.
In one instance, the men persuaded a victim in Georgia who owned a timeshare in Kissimmee, Florida, to pay Kinmont and Wenz’s business on four separate occasions in 2016, an indictment says.
This individual paid $3,716 in fees, according to the indictment.
Another Georgia resident who owned a timeshare in Hilton Head, South Carolina, made five payments to the men’s business in 2016 and lost $1,777, the indictment says.
The FTC filed a lawsuit against the men in December 2016, according to an agency’s news release issued at the time.
By May 2018, Kinmont and Wenz were permanently banned from running their business and were ordered to give up about $3.4 million in assets to settle the FTC’s charges, according to another FTC news release.
At the time, Kinmont agreed to surrender $1.84 million, property valued at $600,000, his Range Rover, a Ferrari, a Bayliner boat and a Rolex watch, the FTC said.
Wenz agreed to give up $215,000 he held in his brokerage and bank accounts, two houses, two trucks, silver coins and a diamond ring, according to the FTC.
Kinmont and Wenz’s sentences will be followed by three years of supervised release, prosecutors said.
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