A 56-year-old Williamsburg man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to using stolen identities to scam resort companies out of thousands of dollars.
Keith D. Kosco now faces a maximum penalty of 20 years for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, a maximum sentence of 10 years for engaging in monetary transactions with proceeds from unlawful activity and a mandatory two-year sentence on an aggravated identity theft charge.
Kosco, a Williamsburg native, was directly indicted in November after an investigation by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service revealed he and co-defendant Julie L. Duffield along with employees of his business Elite Equity Transfers conducted fraudulent transfers of more than 1,000 timeshare units into the names of people whose identities were stolen.
Many of the people, including Kosco’s incarcerated daughter, were unaware they were receiving the properties. Kosco and Duffield collected fees for the transfers.
None of the people to whom the timeshares had been transferred paid maintenance fees or taxes, causing “devastating impact” to the credit of the victims, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The scam also caused more than $800,000 in losses to resorts where the timeshares were based.
Duffield pleaded guilty Jan. 12 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and will be sentenced May 5. Brendan Hawkins, another person connected to the scheme, pleaded guilty Dec. 22 to conspiracy to commit maul fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 20.
Court documents show much of the fraudulent activity was conducted out of an office location in Williamsburg.
Kosco will be sentenced at 10 a.m. July 13 in the Eastern District of Virginia’s Norfolk courtroom.
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