Couple sued for scamming 30,000 timeshare owners

SEATTLE (AP) - An Olympia couple is being sued by the state of Washington for scamming 30,000 timeshare owners.

The civil lawsuit announced by Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Thursday is part of a national crackdown coordinated by the Federal Trade Commission.

The attorney general's office says Jonathan and Christine Gibbs fooled elderly consumers into paying them thousands of dollars to transfer ownership of their vacation timeshares to shell corporations.

Ferguson describes the scam as a large, complicated scheme that harmed about 30,000 consumers nationwide, including 1,500 people in Washington state. He says the couple collected more than $70 million while operating as 25 different companies.

It took Washington investigators 18 months to investigate and shut down the scam.

The Federal Trade Commission is announcing more than 80 civil lawsuits in 27 states.

Does Bluegreen Miss the Grade?

By Seth Jayson | More Articles
June 2, 2011

Margins matter. The more Bluegreen (NYSE: BXG  ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market.  That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, comparisons to sector peers and competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Bluegreen's competitive position could be.
Here's the current margin snapshot for Bluegreen and some of its sector and industry peers and direct competitors.

Company	TTM Gross Margin	TTM Operating Margin	TTM Net Margin
Bluegreen	75.8%	19.1%	(8.8%)
Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS  )	19.0%	19.0%	11.2%
Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE: WYN  )	51.5%	19.6%	10.2%
Marriott International (NYSE: MAR  )	12.7%	6.8%	4.0%

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Unfortunately, that table doesn't tell us much about where Bluegreen has been, or where it's going. A company with rising gross and operating margins often fuels its growth by increasing demand for its products. If it sells more units while keeping costs in check, its profitability increases. Conversely, a company with gross margins that inch downward over time is often losing out to competition, and possibly engaging in a race to the bottom on prices. If it can't make up for this problem by cutting costs -- and most companies can't -- then both the business and its shares face a decidedly bleak outlook.
Of course, over the short term, the kind of economic shocks we recently experienced can drastically affect a company's profitability. That's why I like to look at five fiscal years' worth of margins, along with the results for the trailing 12 months, the last fiscal year, and last fiscal quarter. You can't always reach a hard conclusion about your company's health, but you can better understand what to expect, and what to watch.
Here's the margin picture for Bluegreen over the past few years.

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of seasonality in some businesses, the numbers for the last period on the right -- the TTM figures -- aren't always comparable to the FY results preceding them. Here's how the stats break down:

• Over the past five years, gross margin peaked at 76.5% and averaged 69.6%. Operating margin peaked at 17% and averaged 13.4%. Net margin peaked at 4.7% and averaged -0.8%.
• TTM gross margin is 75.8%, 620 basis points better than the five-year average. TTM operating margin is 19.1%, 570 basis points better than the five-year average. TTM net margin is -8.8%, 800 basis points worse than the five-year average.

With recent TTM operating margins exceeding historical averages, Bluegreen looks like it is doing fine.
If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're probably ahead of 95% of the market's individual investors. To stay ahead, learn more about how I use analysis like this to help me uncover the best returns in the stock market.  Got an opinion on the margins at Bluegreen? Let us know in the comments below.

Embarrassing for Wyndham

* Libya's UK revenues overseen by Treasury

* Russell & Bromley, Monsoon also in building

By Henning Gloystein

LONDON, June 1 (Reuters) - Conoco Phillips (COP.P) and energy trading
firm Trafigura are among the big-name tenants in a London building
owned by the Libyan government where European sanctions now mean the
rent goes to the UK Treasury.

Portman House, on London's Oxford Street famed for its shopping, was
bought by the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company (LAFICO) in 2009.

Trafigura said that the Treasury's Asset Freezing Unit was operating
it in the wake of EU sanctions against various Libyan state-run firms.

"In short, the rent and accounts are overseen by HM Treasury,"
Trafigura said in a written statement to Reuters.

The Treasury was not immediately available for comment.

Along with U.S. energy company Conoco Phillips and Trafigura, fashion
retailers Russell & Bromley and Monsoon MSN.mGBP are also tenants.

In March, the European Commission and U.S. government placed
"restrictive measures" on LAFICO, which froze income and dividends
from some holdings in the European Union and United States.

The EC legislative document from March 11 states that LAFICO, also
known as the Libyan Investment Authority, is under the control of
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family and is a "potential
source of funding for his regime".
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Factbox on
Libyan stakes in European bluechips: [ID:nLDE72724Y] Factbox on Libyan
investments in Africa: [ID:nLDE7271J4] Libya oil chief defects to
Italy: [ID:nLDE75031M]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

LAFICO subsidiary Kinloss Property Ltd bought the building from Land
Securities (LAND.L) for 155 million pounds ($254.3 million).

A spokesman for Conoco Phillips said the firm only dealt with a London-
based property management firm in charge of the building.

James Andrew RSW, which manages the building for Conoco Phillips, was
not immediately available for comment.

In March, the hotel division of Wyndham Worldwide Corp (WYN.N) said
European governments had issued an exemption from anti-Gaddafi
sanctions so that it could keep operating a group of hotels it runs
jointly with a firm partly owned by a Libyan government entity.
[ID:nN05288358]

Other Libyan entities subject to EC restrictions are the Central Bank
of Libya (CBL), the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio, the Libyan
Foreign Bank, and the Libyan Housing and Infrastructure Board (HIB).

(Additional reporting by Karen Foster in London and David Sheppard in
New York; editing by Jason Neely)

Get Out Now

Most timeshare resorts will refund a member if it means stopping lots of bad publicity and a nasty lawsuit that will make public, their dirty little secrets.
They don't want you to know this, and will make you sign a "gag" agreement not to disclose any settlement. And they will sue you if you break the agreement.

I have helped owners get out of their contracts using the Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing clause.  I also will list your timeshare for sale for NO Money up front. You pay a 6% commission when it sells and you have the money in your hands. If you wish to just get rid of the timeshare and give it away, I charge nothing. No tricks, no scams. Email me at notimeshare@gmail.com


This is why we are so successful, we research every aspect of the resort, from business dealings to background checks on salespeople. We find the information that will get you, your money back.

Two Red Weeks - $1500

Check out our resale page, an owner is selling 2 weeks for only $1500 at Fairfield Glade in Crossville, TN. Fees for 2011 are paid weeks are #26 and 27 (4th of July).
Do not contact us if you are a resale company, I will only forward your name when I can verify you are an interested party, not trying to get a listing fee from these owners.