San Antonio Feds Charge Two Extradited From France in $40M Timeshare Scam

Two suspects extradited from France landed in federal court in San Antonio this week, accused of running a scheme that bilked American owners of Pacific coast Mexican timeshares out of more than $40 million. Christian Felipe Rodriguez Peraza and his wife, Brenda Tamayo Corona, both Mexican nationals, were transferred from French custody to San Antonio on August 31 after their arrest in France earlier this year, and made their first court appearance the very next day.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal indictment returned in San Antonio names four defendants in total: Rodriguez, described as the alleged ringleader, along with Tamayo, UK national Michael Ian Hollands, and Yorlena Alfonso Cuesta. Prosecutors allege the group operated a scheme defrauding U.S. owners of timeshares along Mexico's Pacific coast out of more than $40 million.

The tactics described in federal court documents follow a familiar advance-fee playbook, but with an added layer of impersonation. The fraudsters allegedly told timeshare owners their properties had already been sold, then posed as U.S. and Mexican government officials — and even stole the identities of real American attorneys — to demand advance payments for supposed fees and taxes before victims could receive their sale proceeds.

Court Appearance and Potential Penalties

Rodriguez and Tamayo appeared September 1 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly Stephenson in San Antonio. Per the same Justice Department account, both face up to 20 years in federal prison on a conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge, plus up to another 20 years for money laundering conspiracy if convicted.

Federal prosecutors allege the group didn't just collect the stolen funds — they laundered them through U.S.-based business entities and bank accounts, including ones allegedly operated by co-conspirator Hollands, the UK resident named in the indictment. The Justice Department's announcement was amplified on social media by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, which tagged the DHS Office of Inspector General, the FBI's Washington Field Office, and the Department of Justice's International Affairs office, and directed potential victims of similar advance-fee schemes involving Mexican timeshares to the FBI's Timeshare-WF victim reporting form.

A Pattern Federal Regulators Have Been Tracking for Years

This case is not an isolated incident. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Mexican timeshare resort Kovay Gardens, 17 affiliated entities, and five individuals in February 2026, according to Steptoe, marking the sixth major federal enforcement action against Mexican timeshare fraud networks.

The scale of the underlying problem shows up in bank filings, too. Following a joint July 2024 advisory from FinCEN, OFAC, and the FBI, U.S. financial institutions submitted more than 250 Suspicious Activity Reports documenting roughly 1,300 transactions totaling $23.1 million sent primarily from U.S. victims to counterparties in Mexico within just six months, the Treasury Department reported. That same Treasury data, published in August 2025, found American victims lost an average of $28,912 per transaction, with median losses of $10,000.

The human toll is likely far larger than the official numbers suggest. FBI data cited by Snell & Wilmer indicates roughly 6,000 U.S. victims reported losing nearly $300 million to Mexican timeshare fraud schemes between 2019 and 2023 — but legal experts quoted in that same report emphasize that up to 80% of victims never come forward at all, often out of shame or fear.

San Antonio's Role in a Federal Crackdown

The prosecution also reflects a shift in local federal enforcement priorities. In June 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas formally joined the Department of Justice's Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force, a move aimed at expanding federal action against cross-border telemarketing and timeshare scams that target older Americans.

The San Antonio case echoes broader patterns Hoodline has tracked in prior coverage of cartel-linked fraud, where organized networks have increasingly turned to advance-fee timeshare schemes and impersonation of legal officials to extract money from elderly Americans, alongside parallel Treasury sanctions actions against cartel financial networks. No trial date for Rodriguez, Tamayo, Hollands, or Alfonso Cuesta was included in the Justice Department's announcement.