Telemarketer Pleads Guilty In Multi-Million Dollar Scam

Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced Patrick A. Nosack, 34, of Henderson, Nevada, pled guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with telemarketing. Nosack faces maximum penalties of 25 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, five years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment. Nosack is being held without bond pending his sentencing, which is set for Thursday, September 17.

The charge arose out of a telemarketing scam which operated in Las Vegas, Nevada, which bilked over 3,000 victims of approximately 10 million dollars. Consumers were victimized in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, all 10 Canadian provinces and the Northwest Territory of Canada, as well as Australia, Israel and the United Kingdom. There were at least 12 victims in nine of the 38 counties comprising the Southern District of Illinois. The scheme operated from December 5, 2006 until January 24, 2012.

Nosack was a telemarketer at a telemarketing company called Vacation Max, which operated a timeshare resale scam. The company purported to be a Georgia corporation located in Delaware, but actually operated in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company falsely represented they had found corporate buyers interested in acquiring blocks of timeshare units including the consumer's timeshare unit for purported business and tax purposes. The company solicited fees of up to several thousand dollars from each timeshare owner in purported pre-paid closing costs and related expenses. Like all such scams, none of the purported sales occurred and Vacation Max did not successfully sell any consumer's timeshare interests except a relatively small number at fire sale prices.

This prosecution is one of nearly 100 timeshare resale fraud prosecutions brought in the Southern District of Illinois over the past four years. The case is part of an ongoing investigation by the St. Louis Field Office of the Chicago Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys William E. Coonan and Michael Hallock.