Speaking Out Against Sunterra

[messeneger Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close messeneger]

Ian Podesta, a former senior employee at Sunterra Corp speaks out against the
fraudulent activities of the corporation and its long standing partner the
First National Bank.(fully owned by Abbey National) now part of the GE
Corporation.

In his new blog, hosted at ianpodesta.blogspot.com, Ian begins the story back
in the early 90s when the scam was first developed. He reveals insider
details, naming key players and disclosing the illegal marketing strategies
behind the whole campaign. No questions go left unanswered.

Ian will highlight the injustices caused to many thousands of *UK families who
are involved in the fraudulent "points based vacation club" as it is noted
that those guilty of this illegal behaviour continue to go unpunished by the
law, even though there has been boardroom dismissals.

Ian's blog 'Speaking Out Against Sunterra' went live with its first post on
11th March 2006. http://podesta.blog.co.uk

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Sunterra has a checkered past. But, they seem to be pretty good now. Can we hear the other side of the story?

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I guess this will help folks like www.vogas.org , the Sunterra Compensation group, sponsored by the Timeshare Consumers Association, and www.sunterrafied.co.uk

[messeneger Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close messeneger]

A Letter to Nick Benson

Dear Nick,

Like me, you were no doubt absolutely over the moon, when England won the World Cup in Sydney. Ironically H.M Queen is there today, opening the new wing of the Sydney Opera House.

Clive Woodward, (now Sir Clive ) explained to the world media, that one of the major facts in their success was down to H.M Royal Marines.

Before leaving for Australia, Sir Clive took the whole squad to Commando Training Centre, CTC, to train along side Royal Marines.

It was during this trip, that Sir Clive learned, how every Royal Marine was trained in the preparation of a mission, always have plan A, B, C, & D
thought out and ready to implement to get the job done.

Nick, being a former Officer to HM Queen and a keen rugby player, you would agree, that Sir Clive, did indeed learn a valuable lesson.

The last 2 years, I have been working to exactly the same strategy, and in fact Plan A has proved to be highly effective against you and Sunterra.

The HM Inland Revenue, has recovered vast amounts of money from Sunterra and First National Bank, and you have dismissed Bruce, Wythe & Dobson.

Plan A proved that Sunterra acted illegally.

At 20.28hrs GMT, Plan B was launched.

By using a series of webblogs ( a demonstration of one, you no doubt will
already have seen) I now intend to show the Sunterra Members, why they are entitled to their monies back, and if they paid using a First National Loan, how they can claim, that back also.

By you and your Board of Directors allowing the use of a large scale force of illegal workers, you have acted extremely irresponsible and illegally.

No doubt you are well aware of the 12 hour hook rule, if a person acting
on-behalf of you and is doing work for the Company on their premises, then these people should be employed.

The 12 hour hook rule, means, if you hang up your coat for more than 12 hours per week at the place you deem to be your place of employment, then you are deemed employed.

To be given a self-employment contract, where you become responsible for your own tax and NI Insurance, and you are at the place of work more than 12 hours per week, this contract is illegal. Therefore anything you do on-behalf of the Company,also becomes illegal.

No doubt you are well aware that most days within the period of 1995 to 2002, most of the Sunterra UK sales operations worked a five day week, from Weds through to Sunday each week.

During the course of the working day, each sales rep would have been provided 2 clients per day.

Sunterra even provided free of charge, excellent catering facilities for it's staff, including many a Sunday lunch, which I enjoyed.

I have done my homework, I'm not a lawyer by trade like you, but this great country of ours, extends fantastic libraries for all of us to benefit from and also the Citizen Advice Bureau, where people are there to offer free advice.

They do inform me, that if I could prove it, if I was sold a product,
(especially if it's link to a finance agreement, under the Consumer Credit
Act) by a Company who was using an illegal work force, then the contracts that I was " sold into " would be classed has an illegal transaction.

If I could prove that the salesperson, with the Company's knowledge, allowed this to take place, it would be deemed that the Company was acting completely illegal and recklessly. The Board of Directors acted outside the law.

There would be grounds for a full refund.

If enough " members got together " a solid class action could be launched, not just against Sunterra, but it's partners First National Bank, along with Abbey National.

By collating enough ex-Sunterra employees, a second action alongside the above, would prove financially crippling. The ex-employees would prove excellent witnesses.

It wouldn't take too long, using various webblogs over the internet to drum up enough Sunterra members looking for an easier way to opt out, with the chance of recovering all their monies and interest payments.

No doubt there would be a very substantial number of members who already have thrown the keys in, and walked away, jumping on the band wagon.

I would estimate, that over 50% of your current membership force would jump on this " gift of luck ".

No doubt, you and your " legal eagles " will have too put up some kind of
legal battle, but I would imagine you would have to explain to the Board and Stockholders in the USA, that there is a strong possibility, that this action could go against Sunterra and First National Bank, now owned by G.E, who also would have to be informed.

I would imagine that a large percentage of US Stockholders, will not want to risk being embroiled and led in a sticky situation, so they would probably, sell their shares now at $14.00, and put their monies elsewhere.

Obviously, there view would be along the lines of Nick Benson was CEO, Europe when all these illegal activities were going on, so can we trust this guy to be telling us the truth now.

I am sure that some "larger shareholders "would want to take this further and register their concerns to the NYSE, where recently, you had the privilege of ringing "the bell"

When the Stockholders realize you have been ringing their bell, I think they will have some serious things to shout about.

Enron comes to mind.

So on Wednesday 15th March 2006 @ 12.00 hrs GMT, I will put into motion the rest of Plan " B ".

By 18.00 hrs GMT enough web-blog sites will be telling the story.

Gordon Henry has prepared my schedule of loss. He is contactable on ## # ####.

Given that I have been successful so far with Plan A, and I haven't given up, I am quite prepared for "Plan B "to take another 2 years of my life.

Gordon once said to me, I have nothing to loose, my families, homes, personnel credibility have been shattered by Sunterra and First National Bank.

For me this mission will continue, until I bring you and your Company, along with First National Bank, to book.

I served you and the Company well, you know that. Being a Royal Marine to heart, I am not trained to give up. I won't.

I don't expect a reply, but you know what to do.

Wednesday 12.00 hrs.

Your choice.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Should this thread be in the Sunterra forum?

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Should this thread be in the Sunterra forum?

No, this is a re-hash of old material that Carolinian brings up every chance he gets, his perogative. Don't know who messeneger is, maybe he meant his name to be messenger?

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

In general, I don't trust people who come to a message board and their first post is a flamer.

I think this messeneger needs to establish his or her credentials on this board with a hundred posts or so before we take him seriously.

We know where Carolinian is coming from. His positions are well known and understood.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

It appears that Messeneger is either Ian Podesta or someone closely affiliated with him. The second post is verbatim a Podesta post on the linked blog.

Now we have a whistleblower who makes his name public, and he apparently was fairly high up in Sunterra. We are seeing info from inside the company that tracks what the Timeshare Consumers Association has been saying for some time at www.vogas.org and what many Sunterra members from Scotland have been saying for some time at www.sunterrafied.co.uk

I think it is also interesting that Podesta reveals that the Sunterra points system was modelled after the sleazy Flexi Club of South Africa ( see the SA board on Crimeshare, www.crimeshare.org/77.html ) Flexi Club is just one of the sleazy points operations of the Club Leisure group, and was itself the brainchild of a former loan shark (or tallyman as they are called in SA).

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

The same type of scare tactics can be used against any company in America.

I, for one, believe that Club Sunterra is a good program. I am thinking about buying into it. I'm just waiting for the right opportunity.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Your thread comes accross as if you are trolling for a fight... please remember to stick to the facts and keep this thread polite and respectful or this thread will be removed. I have edited your title as it calls out specific names and and the title was inflamitory.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Mavo, the moderator on the Sunterra board at Timesharetalk has posted that he knows Podesta and that Podesta is sincere and wants to clean up some problems at Sunterra. IMHO the change in the tread title is not justified, as far as calling it a troll post.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

His post sounds like he has an axe to grind. He doesn't appear to want to clean it up. He appears to want to hurt them as badly as he can.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

History can serve a pupose

Carolinian has such passion and a good overview of timesharing history that I look forward to his insights. It is too bad that the posts are often tainted with a negativity that ends up ruining what could be an informative thread. As a Sunterra owner I find any inside information interesting but far too much does come across as sour grapes rather than facts. The Sunterra of today is not the one of the late 90's. Same with the unknown insiders at RCI and other groups. Taking it at face value is most likely a mistake but careful reading may give some valuable insight as to possible issues with any timeshare group. In any case thanks for the link as it is interesting reading.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Mavo, the moderator on the Sunterra board at Timesharetalk has posted that he knows Podesta and that Podesta is sincere and wants to clean up some problems at Sunterra. IMHO the change in the tread title is not justified, as far as calling it a troll post.

The title that was posted originally was worse... I updated it again based on the nature of the thread... Just remember to keep to the facts and check the egos at the door and the thread and that clog can be discussed...

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I wonder how much Sunterra has really changed.

The Timeshare Consumers Association in the UK is a very reputable owner-oriented organization, and they are sponsoring a site to gear up a lawsuit (compensation claim in UK jargon) against Sunterra, www.vogas.org They usually don't go that far, so the Sunterra problem would seem to still be pretty major. That site is only against Sunterra's points operation, Club Sunterra, not its weeks-based operation. Significantly, the Scottish group that is also raising a ruckus against Sunterra is also only attacking Club Sunterra, not its weeks operation.

I also find it interesting that Sunterra started its points program in 1994 and for most of the time since has only been selling points, not weeks. Yet, according to the figures on the vogas.org site, a majority of Sunterra owners are still weeks-based owners. That suggests a fundamental market reluctance to embrace the concept of points.