Another Guilty Plea in an Atlantic County Timeshare Scam

Another defendant pleads guilty in a Camden Federal courtroom Friday to defrauding owners of timeshares by offering phony consulting services. 39 year old Joseph Saxon of Brigantine was an employee for Pleasantville-based Vacation Ownership Group, also known as VO Group LLC, that has offices in Mays Landing and Egg Harbor Township. The company claimed to offer timeshare owners consulting services that included canceling, purchasing and upgrading their timeshares.

Officials in U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman's office says Saxon confessed to falsely giving timeshare owners the impression that he was from a bank or mortgage company that held the timeshare owner's loan and that he could facilitate the payoff the entire loan for just a fraction of its total. Fishman says in one instance "the victim mailed a check for $5,925 to the VO Group.

Saxon pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud that could get him twenty years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine when he's sentenced September 20th.

On Jan. 23, 2013, Co-owners Adam Lacerda, Ashley Lacerda and other members of the VO Group were charged in a superseding indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and other charges. To date, 13 members of the VO Group have pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. The Lacerda's and several others await a future trial date.