Vacation ownership developer Capital Vacations has sued Wesley Financial Group, LLC and its founder and CEO, Charles “Chuck” McDowell, alleging deceptive business practices

According to the federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina, Wesley Financial Group operates a so-called timeshare “exit” or “cancellation” company and charges unsuspecting timeshare owners thousands of dollars in upfront fees for no legitimate service. According to the lawsuit, Wesley Financial Group does not help its customers. Instead it subjects its customers to the risk of foreclosure and damaged credit, all while extracting exorbitant fees from the unsuspecting timeshare owners. The lawsuit also states that Wesley Financial Group’s supposedly guaranteed process is not what Wesley Financial Group describes in its advertisements. It merely induces owners to stop payment on their timeshare loans – something no timeshare owner needs to pay Wesley Financial for. According to the lawsuit, Wesley Financial Group’s 100% money-back guarantee is nearly impossible for Wesley Financial Group customers to obtain based on the fine print in its service agreement. According to the state action, to be filed in the South Carolina Supreme Court, Capital will also be asking the state court to find that Wesley Financial Group’s business practices constitute the unauthorized practice of law, as Wesley Financial Group is not a law firm and not licensed to render legal advice to its customers.

Like so many other unregulated businesses masquerading under the guise of “consumer protection advocates,” Capital’s lawsuit alleges that, in reality, Wesley Financial Group’s process is to instruct owners to send complaints filled with generalized and often concocted claims of wrongdoing by Capital, which Wesley Financial Group portrays as the basis for the timeshare cancellation, all while mandating, under threat of forfeiture of both all fees paid and the so-called 100% money-back guarantee, that the owners never reveal that they are working with Wesley Financial Group. A reason for this elaborate deception of “ghost-written complaints” is that Wesley Financial Group knows timeshare companies have refused to deal with abusive advance-fee exit companies like Wesley Financial Group, says the complaint, while making Wesley Financial Group’s customers believe Wesley Financial Group is performing a service worthy of its fee.

Wesley Financial Group and its owner, Chuck McDowell, are now confronted with three federal lawsuits for the same or similar activity. In one of these lawsuits, a federal judge has already ruled that Wesley Financial Group’s business practices violate Tennessee’s consumer protection statute, the very state in which Wesley Financial Group conducts its business. The Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee has issued an alert on its website, citing several of the federal court’s findings that support the conclusion that Wesley Financial Group has indeed violated the Tennessee consumer protection statute.

“Sadly, because Wesley Financial Group instructs our members not to speak with us, most members don’t understand the true status of their account, let alone that Wesley Financial Group’s process leads them to foreclosure and damage to their credit and does not achieve anything they couldn’t achieve on their own without paying Wesley Financial Group’s fees,” says Capital’s President, Travis Bary. “We hope these actions show that Capital is serious about doing everything we can to protect our members from abusive exit companies. As part of its efforts to protect its members from the false promises of timeshare exit companies, Capital is also urging its members to do their research on any company that offers cancellation or resale services and to always reach out to Capital to understand their true and safest options for their accounts.”

ABOUT CAPITAL VACATIONS^®

Capital Vacations is reimagining the travel experience by connecting Independent Resorts with travelers through our technology platform and vacation products. We partner with over 200 Independent Resorts across the U.S. and Caribbean, deploying strategic value-add tools that allow Independent Resorts to increase revenues across multiple channels. In addition, we service over 1,000,000 travelers a year with a hyper-focus on the owner and guest experience and the creation of long-term relationships. Learn more at CapitalVacations.com. Travel. Gather. Smile. Repeat.