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November 2018

Friday’s Letter from America

It’s Friday and time for another Letter from America, this week another new contributor Elaine L, in her Open Letter to many heads of the timeshare industry explains her “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”. But first some news from Europe.

Yesterday we published the article on Silverpoints “Company Participations” scheme and the fact that they admitted in court that it is indeed timeshare, just after we published we had some more news regarding Silverpoint.

In a case that was won recently the lawyers from Canarian Legal Alliance have had success in securing another “Cash Embargo” against this company, also securing the payout to a German client. This happy client has now received the grand sum of 57,239.67€, which is 15,292€ more than they originally paid to Silverpoint for their timeshare.

Once again this is a tremendous blow to a company that has for many years been making millions from unsuspecting clients, the courts are obviously taking a very dim view of these past transgressions.

Inside timeshare has also received information from another reader regarding timeshare presentations, this time Azure Resorts in Malta, incidentally this is another Silverpoint company. This time it is regarding the QA sessions or what is commonly known in Europe as “button up”. It is the stage where the contracts are gone through with the client and explained.

Apparently these sessions are now being recorded, our reader explained that the person conducting the QA or button up re-words what the sales rep has told the client, such as the timeshare will go up in value and that they can sell it on if they no longer want it. The QA staff explain that they cannot guarantee increase in value or future sale, that is down to market forces. Again this is another attempt to secure the sale and negate any future litigation and complaints.

It must also be remembered that the person conducting these sessions is usually also on a commission for the completion, so it is in their best interest to ensure that the client does sign.

So now on with this weeks Letter from America.

An Open Letter to:

Michael Flaskey, Diamond Resorts CEO,

Robert Clements, ARDA lobbyist and Attorney

Gary Stein, head of Apollo Corporate Communications

Charles Zehren, Apollo Investor Relations

By Elaine L, #83 in our list of veterans, active duty service members, Department of Defense workers who feel we experienced unfair and deceptive timeshare sales practices

November 30, 2017

Timeshare sales can pose a national security risk. Just about anyone can get hired to sell timeshare points, and for those of us with Top Security clearances, our careers could be in jeopardy because we believed a timeshare sales agent. When the timeshare sales agent suffers no consequences, the sales agent has been given the green light to sell by any means knowing all complaints are answered in favor of the sales agent.  

 The public needs to know their complaint will fall on deaf ears before buying a timeshare. No matter what the sales agents said, and with little to no enforcement, the buyer will be held responsible for the contract. Diamond should want the public to know this.

According to Social Media reports, the Nevada Real Estate Division (NRED) also  dismisses complaints with, “You have no proof,” so there is nothing to stop a sales agent from making up reasons existing member need to buy additional points.

Our complaint:

Ages 50 and 49 respectively

I have a Top Secret security clearance

October 13, 2018 complaint

At a December 17, 2017 meeting, we asked Davia H about selling the Diamond/ Sunterra timeshare we already owned. We had tried unsuccessfully to sell our timeshare.  We made it clear that our interest was to sell all our interest in Diamond/Sunterra points.

Davia told us that there was no way to sell the Sunterra timeshare because we did not have “Full Club Member” Diamond benefits. She encouraged us to become “Full Club Members” with the promise of being able to sell the timeshare easier.

She said that the points we owned from our original timeshare were worthless and that we needed to upgrade to a “Full Club Member” to receive “benefits that would increase the value of the timeshare to make it worth buying.”  We were quoted a unit price of $8 per unit. We feel that not disclosing that timeshare points are worthless was a material omission.

Davia showed us Timeshareangels.com (a site selling Wyndham Resorts points and timeshares) – she told us she is also a Wyndham timeshare sales agent and said that people were selling points (units) for $4-$6 per unit. Davia showed us examples of listings for Wyndham timeshares. It has been widely reported Diamond points are worthless.    

Davia also said that she would show us how we could make money off our timeshare, if we bought into Diamond’s “Full Club Member” status. Davia advised us to wait six months before trying to sell because the value of the timeshare would increase. She also told us that she knew someone who helps people sell their timeshares and could give us her contact’s information. Given Davia told us to wait six months before trying to sell, it was too late to rescind the purchase agreement. Repeated calls and texts to Davia went unanswered.

Other claims Davia made:

  1. Our management fees would be locked in as “Full Club Members” so maintenance fees would no longer increase,
  2. The value of the timeshare would appreciate over time because of the affiliation Diamond now has with the Apollo Group. Due to the affiliation with Apollo, Davia said we could recoup our cash outlay and the value of the timeshare would continue to increase over time. Davia said the Apollo Group paid way too much for Diamond so were eager to recoup some of the losses.
  3. We could make our points earn money by selling them – she said we could sell our points for more than the $8/point we were paying.

We did not want to buy more points. We only bought points so we could sell them.

3500 points purchased at Cancun Resort in Las Vegas December 17, 2017

Purchase Price: $15,375

Barclays Credit Card opened and charged $14,000

I have filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I will also be writing to Maureen Farrell at the Wall Street Journal, who wrote of Diamond’s upcoming $4 billion IPO. Wall Street needs to hear our side.

Our original complaint sent March 1, 2018 was ignored. Davia used information asymmetry to make money off people in my position. My job and career are at stake due to her charade due to my top security clearance.   

Diamond used the recording of the Quality Assurance against us. The “Hospitality” agent said my husband had asked two questions. The questions were about an assessment fee and how long is escrow. How could we ask questions about the ability to make money or sell points if we didn’t know Diamond points were worthless?

The recording of the QA was reported in a Diamond CLARITY press release to be for the purpose of enhanced training. Several members have reported the QA recording has been used against them. I would like to know if the QA person is penalized financially if a sale doesn’t go through. Diamond does not allow the recording of the sales presentation. For us, there was no Diamond CLARITY promise of RESPECT for the customer, clear, concise, accountable and transparent information.

I sent our complaint to this list of contacts found on our advocacy Facebook page:

To: Michael Flaskey, CEO

Barclay’s President’s Office

DR PR Firm

ARDA

ARDA ROC

Association of Vacation Owners

Hospitality

If a sales agent can say anything to sell points, and the company response is that you signed a contract, then the public must be warned that they should not believe a word a timeshare sales agent says. There are over 2100 members on our member sponsored Facebook page.     

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

Thank you to Elaine for your contribution this week, we are sure it will be recognised by many of our readers, we can only hope that all those it is addressed to actually take notice, somehow I very much doubt it.

If you have had any experience such as those we publish, or have been contacted by any company telling you they can “exit” you from your timeshare or even get you “compensation”, use our contact page and let us know. Inside Timeshare will point you in the best direction and save you a lot of your hard earned cash.

Have a good weekend and join us next week for more “Nightmares on Timeshare Street” and all the other scams that are out there.

Silverpoint: Company Participations is Timeshare

A few years ago Silverpoint changed their usual “investment” packs  into “The Company Participation Scheme”. This is where the clients are then sold “participations” (not shares), in “registered” companies. These are actually apartments that are registered as companies with names like “Palm Beach 112”, using the names of the resorts along with a number, (possibly the apartment).

Once again like the “investment” weeks the whole point is to dodge the strict timeshare laws, which at first Silverpoint were successful in doing so. They actually fooled the courts in the early days that the purchasers were not buying timeshare but were investing in property. Eventually the Supreme Court ruled that these clients were buying timeshare and were not investors, therefore they had the full protection of the timeshare laws.

Since that first ruling Silverpoint has been on the receiving end of many court cases, almost on a daily basis, with the court’s finding for the clients. This is costing Silverpoint hundreds of thousands of pounds.

In a new and unprecedented case these “Participations” have been shown to be what they are, timeshare by another name, or what we at Inside timeshare would call a “Pig in a Dress”.

Company Participations “Pig in a Dress”

It all revolves around a case brought by Canarian Legal Alliance on behalf of clients at the Juzgado De Primera Instancia No2 in Arona Tenerife, (Court of First Instance), on the 20 November 2018.

In this pre-trial hearing, which is usually a precursor to a full trial, something very extraordinary took place, before the Judge, Dña Lara Etelvina López Jiménez, Silverpoint and their legal team admitted that the “Company Participations” are indeed “TIMESHARE”!

This admission is going to have a very profound effect on all pending cases, it also opens the gates for many more “victims” to come forward and place claims against Silverpoint, not just to be reimbursed with their “INVESTMENT” but also have the contract declared null and void.

Judge Lara Etelvina López Jiménez decided on this admission that there was no need for a full trial to take place and closed the proceedings issuing her judgement and sentence within days of the case.

She ordered that the contract be declared null and void with the return to the client of 81,700€ including legal interest and fees. (Click on the PDF to see the court document).

Silverpoint_Company_Participation_Sentence_1_instance

The client was represented by the CLA Team of lawyer Miguel Ángel Méllian Santana and Procurador Buenaventura Alfonso Gonzalez.

Miguel Ángel Méllian Santana

So what exactly is this “Company Participation”?

Well, it is a rather sophisticated scheme designed as we said to circumvent the timeshare laws, “Participants” purchase a number of participations in the companies, which are actually the apartments registered as companies. The idea is they will receive a “rental” income with a yearly dividend of about 4% of the income rental. They are also should be able after 3 years to “sell” their participations, the only thing as we have found out from one of our readers is that they can only be sold to other participants. One slight problem here, they don’t know who they are and have no way of finding out, but according to our readers information, Silverpoint will approach them with the sale!

Attached to these “participations” are also holiday weeks which the “investor” is able to use, which does put them into the realms of timeshare.

Now as far as the “dividends” are concerned, some have received them in the first couple of years of “investing”, but as we are increasingly finding out most are now way behind on receiving them for this year.

The reason is that Silverpoint and Excel Resorts, who are the managing company of the resorts themselves have had a very severe falling out, with Silverpoint losing all marketing rights. So when these “investors” enquire and complain that they have not received their dividends for this year, they are told by Excel that they are waiting for Silverpoint to pay them.

When the “investor” makes further complaints and threatens legal action, it appears that Excel pays them the dividend, the only thing is it is with the “investors” own money which they have paid for the “participations”. I don’t know about you, but to me this looks like the classic “Ponzi scheme”!

What is a Ponzi Scheme?

Here is a simple explanation.

A Ponzi scheme (/Ponzi/ also a Ponzi game) is a form of fraud which lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors by using funds obtained from more recent investors. Investors may be led to believe that the profits are coming from product sales, or other means, and remain unaware that other investors are the source of profits. A Ponzi scheme is able to maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as there continues to be new investors willing to contribute new funds and most of the investors do not demand full repayment and are willing to believe in the non-existent assets that they are purported to own. (It is also known as a Pyramid Scheme).

It is actually named after Charles Ponzi who became notorious for exploiting it in the 1920’s, it also has roots in literature, being used in two Charles Dickens novels Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) and Little Dorrit (1857).

In further developments it has also come to our attention that Diana Aitchison, Chief Operating officer at Silverpoint, has recently parted company with Silverpoint, she is apparently now in the reservations department of Excel Resorts and Hotels.

This does indeed acknowledges a huge split between the two companies, one problem which Excel will have with the move of Diana Aitchison, is the fact that she signed off many of these “participations” for Silverpoint. This along with the fact that Excel is listed as “Sole Administrator” for these “registered” companies indeed shows a legal link which will only help those future cases.

We will bring you further information as we get it, but for now this recent development is going to please many of those who “INVESTED” in this scheme.

Have you been a victim of this or a similar “timeshare” scheme?

Have you been a victim of Resort Properties / Silverpoint and want to know the way forward?

If so use our contact page and let us know, Inside Timeshare will explain what your options are and point you in the right direction. You have rights under Spanish law for redress, don’t lose out on your chance to regain your hard earned money and have the contracts declared null and void.

Another Incarnation of the Fake Lawyer in Tenerife

Well it didn’t take long for another incarnation of the Litigious Abogados family to come up with another “FAKE” law firm, this one is called La Litigación Española, with the website

http://lalitigacionespanola.com

Which was registered on 2 November 2018 so is only 25 days old, it is due to expire on 2 November 2019, so only paid for one year!

As usual the registrant is hidden by a privacy protect via GoDaddy, this in itself is usually a sign of a “Scam” outfit.

According to the website the firm was founded on Friday 2 october 1992, again very precise, by Juan Folanta Hadorso, they claim to be a legally registered Spanish company with the CIF Number A25891623. No company can be found on Spanish company register and the CIF Number is also a fake.

The address is one that we have seen before on several other incarnations:

4, Calle de San. Francisco, 4P, Santa Cruz, 38001-38002, España

The telephone numbers they give are:

Freephone: 0800 862 0194

Madrid: 0034 919 030 442

Santa Cruz: 0034 822 250 524

With the email addresses:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Again these email addresses are free email providers.

The website once again shows many official logos for the many Colegios de Abogados, (Bar Associations) and various other official associations.

They also show photographs of their so-called lawyers:

Juan Folanta Hadorso

Juan Folanta Hadorso, the founder, who is actually Jean-Pierre-Mignard Lysias Partners based in France (see link)

Jean-Pierre-Mignard

https://www.lopinion.fr/edition/politique/jean-pierre-mignard-dans-jardin-bien-mal-5230

Francisco Desrabu Folanos

Alberto Nalgata Solatez

Emillio Gargantim Librenza

On the contact page there is also a photo of another young lady who is probably the admin contact contact:

Manuela Lamamel Coniu

We are still in the process of identifying the other pictured “lawyers”.

Another name that has surfaced is Alberto Nalgata Solatez who is from Departmento De Reclamaciones or claims department.

Well we all know what the “pitch” is going to be, your timeshare company is to appear in court very shortly, you have a case and can be part of this. But to do so there is going to be a procurator fee to be paid direct to a named individual and a personal bank account.

Then you will be informed that the director of your timeshare company pleaded guilty to all charges and you have been awarded a substantial amount of money. Fantastic, an early Christmas present, unfortunately you must first pay a “TAX” to have this money released, this will be around 20% of the awarded amount.

This will all be backed up as in the past by very convincing court documents, along with probably a photocopy of the cheque made out in your name. This will never arrive, well, an envelope will arrive but it will be open and the cheque will be missing.

Then out of the blue, another company will be in touch and tell you the cheque was stolen and cashed by a foreign gang. This company has been charged by the court to recover your money for you, but, yes you guessed it, they will want around 10% to 20% of the awarded amount to carry this out.

This is a “FRAUD”, do not be taken in by them, all the names are FAKE, all the documents are FAKE, everything about them is FAKE!

If you have been contacted by this or any other company with a similar story, use our contact page and give us the details, it is through your information that we can warn others and also pass this information to the appropriate authorities.

Remember, doing your homework first will in the end save you thousands and a lot of heartache.