An attorney from Michigan was accused July 18 of being involved in a scam that defrauded about 20,000 time-share owners out of more than $12 million.
Roger Canzano, 53, of Rochester, MI, was accused of operating three phony appraisal companies used in the scheme, according to charges by the U.S. attorney general's office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. According to the indictment, telemarketers operating out of a boiler room contacted time-share owners, offering to buy their time shares if they obtained an appraisal. A second boiler-room operation referred time-share owners to appraisal companies, among which were those run by Canzano, according to the charges.
The appraisal companies would obtain the owner's credit card information and would bill them for a bogus appraisal that was merely information run off a database, according to the indictment. The owners then would receive either no offer or an offer far below market value for their time shares.
Ten other suspects were indicted in the scam in February.
