A Williamsburg lawyer has been sentenced to 50 months in prison for a participating in a timeshare scheme from 2011 to 2013.
Deborah Wagner, 45, was sentenced to over four years in prison and one year of supervised release Thursday morning in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, according to court records.
Her prison sentence will begin Sept. 9, documents state. She will be out on bond until that date.
The amount of restitution is “to be determined,” sentencing documents show.
Wagner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud on Sept. 9, 2016, according to court records. Wagner was a partner at Wagner & Hyman, located on Jamestown Road. Prosecutors believe she used the law firm as a front to conduct the scheme from 2011 to 2013.
Other businesses were involved, including Exotic Equity Transfers, LLC and GoodBye Timeshare LLC, according to court documents.
Federal prosecutors have said Wagner, along with others, targeted timeshare owners and resorts in the U.S., obtained the timeshare units and transferred them into the names of straw owners — representatives for owners who do not want to reveal their identities but have no stake in the property.
Prosecutors believe they collected transferring fees from the original timeshare owners, keeping the money for themselves instead of giving it to the straw owners.
Co-conspirator Brendan Hawkins was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in December 2014. He was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison in April 2015 and to pay $546,904 in restitution to 19 resorts he scammed.
Julie Duffield, from Montana, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in January 2015. She will pay $738,438 in restitution.
Another man, Keith Kosco, of Williamsburg, pleaded guilty in March 2015 to fraudulently transferring more than 1,000 timeshares into the names of people whose identities were stolen. He was sentenced to 74 months in prison in July 2015.
WYDaily archives were used in this story.
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