LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A federal grand jury Tuesday returned an indictment against a West Los Angeles man who allegedly ran a decade-long telemarketing scam primarily targeting elderly victims that fraudulently obtained more than $4.5 million via false promises to help victims sell or rent their timeshare properties.
Michael Dragunov, 44, is charged in the 10-count indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court, along with Christopher Michael Lang, 42, of Hays, Kansas, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Both defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and email marketing targeting the elderly.
Dragunov was arrested June 28 and ordered jailed without bond. His arraignment is scheduled for July 18. Lang was arrested in Kansas on June 28 and is expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
According to the indictment, from August 2013 until last month, Dragunov and Lang purported to represent companies that provided advertising and other services to current or former timeshare owners. The companies included Premier Marketing LLC, CML Marketing Specialists Inc., Condo Rental Associates LLC, and Paramount Media LLC, prosecutors said.
Dragunov and Lang allegedly contacted victims, many of whom were elderly, and, to conceal the fraudulent scheme and their true identities, the defendants also used Skype messaging service phone numbers and aliases instead of their true names.
Victims allegedly were induced to enter into agreements with the defendants' telemarketing companies -- agreements that were formalized in documents that were faxed or sent electronically -- by falsely representing that the telemarketing companies would assist the victims with selling or renting their timeshare properties for a "one time" advertising fee.
Despite the recurring fees that each victim paid, often reaching the hundreds of thousands over several years, no victim received the timeshare- related services or proceeds promised, the indictment alleges.
To dupe victims into sending them more money, Dragunov and Lang allegedly told victims a series of lies, including that the fees being requested would be refunded or reimbursed to the victims upon completion of the sale or rental of the victims' timeshare, that the victims still owed taxes on the timeshare properties, and if the victims tried to dispute their payments to the telemarketing companies, the victims would automatically lose their disputes and lose all funds paid and any proceeds from a sale or rental of their timeshares.
To create the false impression that the telemarketing companies were legitimate, Dragunov and Lang pretended to be the companies' customers and engaged in hundreds of phony small transactions with the companies' payment processing accounts, according to the indictment.
Dragunov and Lang also allegedly concealed material facts from the victims, including the fact that their money was being used to personally enrich themselves.
If convicted of all charges, Dragunov and Lang would each face up to 30 years in federal prison for each count, prosecutors noted.
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