Camden, N.J. – In a shocking revelation, Ian Resnick, a 41-year-old Absecon man, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in a $3 million conspiracy to scam customers by offering phony consulting services to owners of timeshares through the New Jersey-based Vacation Ownership Group LLC.
Resnick, who was previously convicted in September 2013 of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud, was convicted following a seven-week trial before U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman, who imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence presented at trial, Resnick and his codefendants schemed to defraud hundreds of timeshare owners by offering fraudulent consulting services through their company, the Vacation Ownership Group (now VO Financial). Adam Lacerda, 32, of Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, the company founder, president and chief executive officer, devised the company’s fraudulent sales pitches.
The scheme, which was carried out by Resnick and his codefendants, including Adam Lacerda’s wife, Ashley Lacerda, 36, the company vice president and chief operating officer, and Genevieve Manzoni, 50, of Lake Worth, Florida, a top VO sales representative, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of dollars for 14 victims who testified in the case.
The victims, who included business executives, veterans, senior citizens, a lawyer and a professor, were defrauded by the defendants’ sophisticated scheme, which involved telling lies to customers about the company working with banks holding the customers’ loans, using money sent by customers to pay off the customers’ loans on their timeshares, and canceling customers’ timeshares with money back.
Resnick’s sentence, which includes three years of supervised release, marks the latest chapter in the case, which has seen several of his codefendants sentenced to prison terms. Adam Lacerda, the company founder, was sentenced to 27 years in prison on June 25, 2015, while Genevieve Manzoni was sentenced to 42 months in prison in December 2015.
The investigation into the scheme was carried out by the FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency and the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, with assistance from the N.J. Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney R. David Walk Jr. of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden. Resnick is represented by Michael E. Reilly Esq. of Philadelphia.
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Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: White Collar Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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