Mark S. Parks, Mail and Wire Fraud, Wisconsin 2023

Four Defendants Charged in Federal Court for Participating in Nationwide Timeshare Telemarketing Fraud Scheme

In a major blow against a notorious timeshare resale scheme, a federal grand jury in Wisconsin has returned indictments against Mark S. Parks, Mindy L. Parks, Ashley M. Conant, and Eileen M. Goltz, charging each of them with one count of Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud.

The suspects, who operated the scheme from 2007 to 2011 under several different names, including Integrated Advertising Solutions, National Timeshare Resales, Administrative Timeshare Resales, and Midwest Timeshares, defrauded over a thousand victims in all fifty states and Canada of over $2,300,000. The victims, many of whom are elderly, were told that interested buyers were prepared to purchase their existing timeshares in exchange for upfront 'administrative fees' ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.

According to the indictment, each defendant faces up to twenty years' imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, a $100 special assessment, and up to three years of supervised release. If the United States proves that at least ten individuals over age 55 were victimized as a result of the conspirators' telemarketing efforts, each defendant could face an enhanced penalty of up to ten years' imprisonment (added to the underlying sentence for the conspiracy to defraud).

The case was a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with assistance from the Brown County Sheriff's Office, the Door County Sheriff's Office, the Waupaca County Sheriff's Office, the Better Business Bureau, and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel R. Humble.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove each of them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Mark S. Parks, Mindy L. Parks, Ashley M. Conant, and Eileen M. Goltz are scheduled to appear in federal court to face the charges. The outcome of the case remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the victims of this scheme will not be forgotten.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edwi/pr/four-defendants-charged-federal-court-participating-nationwide-timeshare-telemarketing