Printer-Friendly Version

Government auctions luxury cars, rolexes
By UPI Staff
United Press International
June 22, 2006

TAMPA, Fla. (UPI) -- Four Ferraris, two Mercedes convertibles and a BMW are among the $1.5 million in luxury goods being auctioned by the U.S. government.

The goods were seized from a Tampa, Fla., couple, Shaun Olmstead and Julie Connell, who are accused of defrauding more than 240,000 people of more than $12 million with an elaborate advance-fee credit card scheme, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

The couple set up several credit card companies in 2001 and began soliciting potential customers by mail, court documents said. The companies -- which included Peoples Credit First LLC and Consumer Preferred LLC -- targeted low-income people with poor credit ratings and promised them a platinum card with a pre-approved credit limit of thousands of dollars, the newspaper said.

To get the card, customers were told to send in $45. Customers were led to believe they were getting a legitimate credit card like a Visa or a MasterCard. Instead, they got a thin, plastic card, a merchandise catalog and a brochure explaining how to order things from the catalog.

The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Olmstead and Connell in 2003. Their businesses were immediately halted and their assets seized, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved