An Orlando man has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for his role a timeshare resale fraud scheme.
- Chima Edozie Aligwekwe sentenced to 9 years in federal prison
- Prosecutors said he played role in timeshare fraud scheme
- He made more than $120K in 3 months, officials said
Chima Edozie Aligwekwe, 34, was also handed a money judgment against him for $704,326, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a statement.
According to trial testimony, was a manager for a company called Timeshare Title Services LLC that made unsolicited phone calls to timeshare owners across the country, falsely claiming that they had a buyer for their timeshares. The owners were told that the buyers had deposited money into an escrow account, and they were sent documents that looked like real timeshare sales contracts.
As part of the scheme, prosecutors said, the timeshare owners were told to send an advance fee to finalize the sales, which many did, but those owners didn't receive any services, and their timeshares weren't sold.
In just a three-month period, Aligwekwe personally made more than $120,000 from victims of the fraud scheme, prosecutors said.
Aligwekwe was found guilty in the scheme by a jury on June 10.
In late August, another participant in the scheme, Eugene Warren Brewington, 34, of Orlando was also sentenced to nine years in federal prison.