Crime & Safety

Clementon Man Among 16 Charged in Massive Mail Fraud Conspiracy

Ryan E. Bird was charged with conspiracy in the $2.4 million scheme.

A Clementon man has been charged for his alleged role in a massive mail-fraud scheme involving bogus time-share mortgages, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced on Tuesday.

Ryan E. Bird, 34, is among 16 people charged with conspiracy in the $2.4 million mail-fraud scheme, according to Fishman. Nine of the 16 defendants, including Bird, were arrested in southern New Jersey on Tuesday.

In addition to Bird, aka Chris Jackson and Matthew Bross, eight people from Atlantic County were arrested in the operation in New Jersey on Tuesday. They are Adam Lacerda, 28, of Egg Harbor Township; Ashley Lacerda, 32, of Egg Harbor Township; Steven Cox, 48, of Ventnor; Ian Resnick, 37, of Absecon; Francis Santore, 52, of Northfield; Brian Corley, 27, of Egg Harbor City; Catherine Bannigan, 57, of Egg Harbor Township; and Joseph Diventi, 32, of Somers Point.

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Those who have also been charged in the conspiracy are Eric Reilly, 33, of Galloway Township; Vincent Giordano, 27, of Margate; Alfred Giordano, 32, of South Carolina; Joseph Saxon, 38, of the Virgin Islands; Aimee Allen, 26, of South Carolina; Genevieve Manzoni, 46, of Florida; and Eric K. Reiff, 40, of Williamsburg, Virginia.

All defendants were in custody as of Tuesday with the exception of Reiff, Alfred Giordano and Allen.

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Reilly, Vincent Giordano, Saxon, Manzoni were arrested outside of New Jersey.

According to the complaints unsealed on Tuesday:

In July 2010, law enforcement officers began investigating The Vacation Ownership Group, (a/k/a VO Group LLC). The investigation revealed that from at least March 2009 and to Sept. 1, 2011, the defendants, through the VO Group, participated in a fraudulent scheme in which representatives of the VO Group, often using false identities, telephoned owners of timeshare vacation properties purchased from Flagship Resort Development, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Inc., and other timeshare developers.

They convinced the owners in some cases to submit money to the VO Group, purportedly to pay off the owners’ “mortgages” on their timeshares. The VO Group claimed that the timeshare owner could pay off the mortgage balance at a substantially reduced amount—often by as much as 50 percent the amount of the owner’s original mortgage—by mailing payment to the VO Group at a post office box in Pleasantville.

The VO Group representatives also got timeshare owners to send the VO Group money purportedly to have timeshares cancelled or sold. After receipt of payments for the VO Group’s “service,” the conspirators caused those payments to be deposited into a bank account in the name of the VO Group.

Rather than paying off the timeshare owner’s mortgage, cancelling the owner’s timeshare, or selling the timeshare, the conspirators used the timeshare owner’s money for their personal use.

The investigation also revealed that in an attempt to cover up the scheme, the conspirators in most cases engaged in a “bait and switch” tactic by purchasing an additional timeshare in the victim’s name without the victim’s knowledge.

The victim purportedly had assented to the purchase based on documents the VO Group previously emailed to the victim for signature even though the victim had been led to believe he or she was simply paying off the original time-share mortgage.

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement officers interviewed approximately 225 victims of the conspirators’ scheme identified to date. Many of the victims are elderly. Law enforcement has determined that the conspirators defrauded the victims of more than $2.4 million.


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