AG wins settlement for timeshare swindle
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Times Argus Staff
Times Argus Staff - Published: November 20, 2009
MONTPELIER – A Nevada company accused of swindling Vermonters out of their timeshares has agreed to reimburse the victims in a settlement announced this week by the attorney general.
Apex Professionals, Inc., will pay $64,000 to 15 victims and another $65,000 in penalties to the state of Vermont to settle charges that it violated the law in arranging the selling of timeshares, according to Attorney General Bill Sorrell.
"If out-of-state companies offering an economic benefit to consumers in Vermont violate the state's consumer laws, they can expect strong enforcement and serious consequences," Sorrell said in a statement.
Apex, a Reno, Nev., based company, invited timeshare owners to sales conferences in Burlington and Montpelier earlier this year. Company representatives told consumers they would transfer ownership of their unused timeshares, thus unburdening them of timeshare maintenance fees, taxes and other costs.
Sorrell said the victims reasonably assumed they would be compensated for their unused timeshares. In fact the company not only transferred ownership of the timeshares without compensation, according to Sorrell, but also charged the owners thousand of dollars in fees.
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