Foreign Nationals Indicted and in Federal Custody for Alleged $40M Timeshare Fraud
SAN ANTONIO / Wednesday, September 2, 2026 – As part of a Homeland Security Task Force case, two Mexican nationals were extradited to the United States this week after being indicted in a federal court in San Antonio for allegedly running a timeshare fraud resale scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas.
According to court documents, Christian Felipe Rodriguez Peraza aka Jose Mario Ochoa Rodriguez, of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, and his wife Brenda Tamayo Corona aka Jazmin Oliva Chacon, of Mexico, along with co-defendants Michael Ian Hollands, of the United Kingdom, and Yorlena Alfonso Cuesta, allegedly conspired to victimize U.S. citizens who owned timeshares on Mexico’s pacific coast. The perpetrators deceived timeshare owners by telling them that their properties had been sold, but that proceeds could only be collected if the victims paid various fees and taxes in advance. In so doing, the fraudsters posed as U.S. and Mexican government officials and used the identities of real American lawyers to lend credence to their claims. An indictment alleges that Rodriguez, through Hollands and other co-conspirators, laundered the victims’ funds through U.S.-based entities and bank accounts. The indictment alleges the group, led by Rodriguez, stole more than $40 million from timeshare owners.
Rodriguez, Tamayo, Hollands, and Cuesta are each charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity. Rodriguez and Tamayo were arrested in France earlier this year and, on Monday, were extradited to the United States. They made their initial court appearances Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly Stephenson of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud charge and 20 years for the money laundering conspiracy charge. The third charge, conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions, carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
“Many of the elderly victims in this case sent all the money they had and more based on the lies told to them by this group of fraudsters,” said U.S. Attorney Simmons. “In case you haven’t noticed, this Department of Justice is uniquely committed to rooting out fraud in all of its forms, especially fraud conducted against Americans by transnational criminal organizations like this one. The long arm of American justice will continue to reach out and touch those who seek to enrich themselves to the detriment of Americans.”
“Our criminal investigators have been at the center of this investigation as a core part of our responsibility to detect and prevent threats to the integrity of Treasury programs and operations,” said Deputy Inspector General Loren Sciurba for the Department of the Treasury, Office of Inspector General. “Impersonation of government agencies victimizes countless Americans daily. We are proud that these joint law enforcement efforts have brought these individuals to justice.”
“This alleged $40 million scheme was a brazen attempt to exploit timeshare owners and profit from deception, and we will continue working to identify and disrupt fraud schemes that target the public,” said DHS Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, Ph.D. “We thank our federal and international partners for their tireless efforts to hold those accused of these crimes accountable.”
“The fraud network uncovered through this investigation represents a calculated and deeply harmful scheme driven by international criminals who preyed on U.S. timeshare owners,” said Jeffrey Tyler, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division. “The FBI remains fully committed to working with our law enforcement partners to dismantle violent criminal organizations and ensure that those responsible for exploiting victims and laundering their proceeds are held accountable.”
Co-defendants Hollands and Cuesta were previously apprehended, and their matters are currently pending.
This matter was investigated by the United States Department of Treasury – Inspector General, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Chung is prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with the Government of France to secure the arrest and August 31 extradition of Rodriguez Peraza and Tamayo Corona to the United States.
If you feel that you may have been a victim of a fraudulent advance fee scheme related to Mexican timeshares, please fill out the requested information at https://forms.fbi.gov/victims/TimeShare-Wf/view. Law enforcement will attempt to verify the potential loss and confirm that it is related to the scheme charged in this matter. Please be advised that several similar schemes operated during the same time period, and so your loss may not be tied to the matter charged in this case. While we cannot guarantee that any specific claim can be addressed or funds recovered, the agencies will do their best to vet and verify any submissions.
This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of U.S. law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.
An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas
