Brielle Meyer

^{Photo credit: Lindsey Hull}

Court documents allege the couple illegally sold their timeshare benefits to third parties. Here’s what that means.

Note: This is a story I wrote for WZZM 13 in March of 2025. The original can be found here.

It’s now been 23 days since a Jackson, Michigan couple got off a plane in Mexico, excited for a trip to Cancun, and instead were taken on a trip of a whole different kind.

Paul and Christy Akeo were taken into custody over a timeshare dispute from three years ago when they walked off the plane for a Cancun trip on March 4.

13 ON YOUR SIDE has obtained court documents that detail the crimes the couple is accused of.

Florida-based Palace Resorts owns a number of resorts and time-shares in Mexico. Court documents say the couple entered into an agreement with Palace Resorts in 2021 for the “sale of membership rights.”

The documents allege that the couple then breached that agreement in 2022 and cost Palace Resort a total monetary loss of $116,587.84.

The couple is accused of the following breaches: 

• Publishing for profit and commercial purposes on websites, social networks, digital platforms, and mass media communication platforms online, the preferential rate and benefits that were originally acquired for the Affiliates only.
• Using, reproducing, and manipulating, directly and without authorization, for profit and commercial purposes on websites, social networks, digital platforms, and mass media communication platforms online, the brands, logos, typography and commercial name owned by Palace Elite.

They further allege the couple disputed charges made to their American Express card by Palace Resorts. The couple’s lawyer spoke with 13 ON YOUR SIDE and confirmed they did dispute 13 charges from Palace Resorts, totaling $116,587.84.

The Akeos claimed they disputed the charges because they stopped receiving the benefits they were paying for. They say Palace Resort breached their contract. 

Their attorney, John Manly, told ABC news that Palace Resorts was cancelling the couples reservations and charging them more money.

Palace Resorts alleges Paul told American Express he “did not recognize the charges” at the time of the dispute.

The disputed charges are as follows:

• DISPUTE 1 | 08/31/2022 | $6,923.48
• DISPUTE 2 | 08/31/2022 | $6,923.48
• DISPUTE 3 | 08/31/2022 | $6,923.48
• DISPUTE 4 | 08/31/2022 | $6,923.48
• DISPUTE 5 | 08/31/2023 | $6,923.48
• DISPUTE 6 | 08/31/2023 | $6,923.48
• DISPUTE 7 | 08/31/2023 | $6,923.48
• DISPUTE 8 | 08/31/2023 | $16,000.00
• DISPUTE 9 | 10/14/2022 | $9,200.00
• DISPUTE 10 | 10/14/2022 | $12,000.00
• DISPUTE 11 | 10/14/2022 | $15,000.00
• DISPUTE 12 | 10/25/2022 | $12,500.00
• DISPUTE 13 | 11/04/2022 | $2,200.00

Palace Resorts also alleges the couple illegally shared and sold their membership benefits with people not contracted in the agreement:

“These third parties were not recognized by my represented entity as beneficiaries but were allowed to book stays in Palace Resorts’ establishments at exclusive member-only rates and access discounted services intended only for members.

This practice violates the contractual agreements, as the benefits are strictly personal and cannot be transferred to the general public (non-members).”

Palace Resorts says the couple entered the contract with the intention of “misusing it for profit-making purposes” from the beginning.

You can read the full court documents in the original story linked at the beginning of this post.