5 await verdict in Camden court in alleged time-share scam

After more than a month in a jury box in Camden, 13 women and three men will decide whether a group of young salespeople knowingly orchestrated a multimillion-dollar time-share scam defrauding hundreds of clients.

Five defendants, two co-owners and three employees of Vacation Ownership Group L.L.C., now known as VO Financial Corp., are charged with taking $2.4 million from 225 clients who they said would be released from time-share commitments. The time-shares were never canceled, and in some cases, employees signed up clients for new time-shares without their knowledge, prosecutors said.

Adam and Ashley Lacerda, husband and wife and cofounders of VO, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire and money fraud, along with codefendants Ian Resnick, Joseph DiVenti, and Genevieve Manzoni.

The trial in U.S. District Court in Camden has at times played out like a daytime movie drama, including stories of prescription-pill-addicted salesmen, and at other times like a tedious real estate lecture.

To convict any of the defendants, the jury must find that they not only participated in the scam but also did so intentionally. They will have 716 exhibits and 36 government witnesses to consider.

Unbeknownst to the jury, during the course of the trial, four of the five defendants have been in and out of jail due to a variety of criminal charges and violations of court rules.

The strangest in a series of incidents occurred Aug. 14, when Resnick, in custody on charges of domestic violence, passed a note to Ashley Lacerda, who was detained due to evidence she tried to contact a witness.

The note, which was intercepted by U.S. Marshals and read into the record out of the presence of the jury, urged Ashley to tell her husband, who was not in custody, to flee the country.

"Don't risk another day in jail - Go to Bermuda - small private plane - from there Cuba or Venezuela - ask for Asylum - cause mistrial - case falls apart without him here - saves us all," the note read.

The government did not seek additional charges against Resnick but motioned for Adam Lacerda to be detained, calling him a potential flight risk. Judge Noel L. Hillman granted the motion and revoked Lacerda's bail.

On Thursday, the government finished its summation, followed by five hours of closing arguments from the five defense attorneys.

Central to the case is testimony from seven former VO employees who pleaded guilty to the fraud and directly implicated the defendants on the stand.

Defense attorneys have described those seven as liars, criminals, and "junkies" (several admitted to taking five to 10 oxycodine pills a day and drinking large quantities of alcohol while on the job).

Mark Cedrone, attorney for Adam Lacerda, 29, said the business his client started was productive and profitable, serving more than 2,000 clients a year, in an economy where people desperately wanted to get out of pricey time-shares.

Things only went south, Cedrone said, when a handful of rogue employees started ripping off customers.

Cedrone also argued the large amount of money Lacerda made through the company was not evidence of guilt.

Resnick's attorney, Mike Riley, has questioned how jurors could convict Resnick of defrauding a woman who never testified. A second alleged victim, who named Resnick as the person she dealt with at VO, testified against him.

Attorneys for Ashley Lacerda, Joseph DiVenti, and Genevieve Manzoni argued their clients played peripheral roles in the company. Ashley Lacerda did mostly clerical work and ran errands, her attorney Charles Nugent said. DiVenti and Manzoni were first-line callers, meaning they would take a client's information and then hand it up the chain of command.

The government rebutted, saying that by reading the call scripts, which contained lies, the defendants would have been aware of their involvement. One of the scripts found in the office said the company worked with banks to cancel mortgages, which was not true.

The jury is to begin deliberations next week.