Manhattan Club Lawsuit

This is on travel zoo today:$179 -- 4-Star Midtown Manhattan Suite thru Spring, 55% Off Source: The Manhattan Club 200 West 56th St, New York, NY 10019 they are still renting out units.

Kathleen,

It's been ingrained in most of us to honor our obligations, despite the horrible treatment we have suffered at the hands of TMC. But keep in mind, most of us owners, by continuing to make payments, are funding the very people who have been defrauding thousands of us for years.

I decided I had had enough, and cancelled the credit card TMC was using to charge my fees. TMC will have to use the Eichner family's own money to fight the NY Attorney General, not mine.

I urge all owners to do the same.

They're both the same building @870 7th Ave the marquee reads the Park Central Hotel walk around the corner to w W 56th ST (side entrance) the marquee reads The Manhattan Club.

Gerald Schargel was on John Gotti Sr' s defense team.

I received a couple of letters from the Attorney General;s office. The most recent one was from Serwat Farooq, Esq. Assistant Annorney General, Division of Economic Justice, Real Estate Finance Bureau. These were in response to my email inquiry from the Attorney General's Website. One excerpt from the letter is this, "The goal of our investigation is to address allegations that have been made about the practices of the Manhatta Club. If, as a result of the investigation, we are able to prove thatr the law has been broken, we hope to be able to provide relief for all ofd the affected Manhattan Club purchasers." It goes on to say "Please note that this Office does not represent individual complaintants in court, nor can we provide individual legal advice. If you have questions about how the investigation will affect you, you may want to consult your own private counsel."

Does anyone have the address for the New York Attorney General Public Affairs Office?

Address is: State of New York Office of the Attorney General Division of Economic Justice Real Estate Finance Bureau 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271 ATTN: Serwat Farooq, Esq. Assistant Attorney General Phone (212) 416-8122 Fax: (212) 416-8179 Web: www,AG.NY.gov

The New York Attorney General is not obligated to benefit or support the owners, only protect the state of New York real estate. All your letters going to him will help them win, but we do not have a class action lawsuit that would help owners. And I don't want to be excluded because I live in AZ. I think they should just turn it into a hotel (since that's what they're doing anyhow) and give the owners back the money they paid - at least the purchase price. Over a decade I have given much more money in the ridiculous fees with than the original cost. And this was a donation to them - because I rarely got anything in return. I was only able to use "my" home property twice and those weren't full weeks - the rest of the time I had to pay to rent out from other owners because I couldn't book time there. After a while - I just went to other hotels in NY because a) it was cheaper and b) it made me angry to stay there and rent from someone else when I owned there! For the total we ended up paying out so far - I basically paid $2,500 a night to stay there. I paid their bills while they ran to fill their rooms to make more money with it. The reality is we need to do something drastic as owners with good representation and not rely on the Attorney General. They will probably try give everyone some settlement of a free week long stay or something trivial. After someone stealing $30K from me, that does not sound like a fair compensation.

I am an owner also with many of the same complaints. A few years ago I met with a sales rep to discuss ways of selling it. Not only were they not interested in buying it back at any price, the rep's only suggestion was to pay them $3500.00 to convert it to RCI points! I pointed out to the rep that I had banked a week with RCI, and after two years of not finding a useable swap, I was finally forced to use the week at TMC at a time I didn't want. I have also withdrawn permission for MC to use my credit card for maintenance payments and got then to credit back a recent charge.I have no intention of making any further payments to them.

there seems to be no way out of this timeshare. The class action lawsuit could take years to resolve. Since the Manhattan Club owners have been ordered to no longer sell this scam and not take funds out of their banks accounts, I am guessing that those of us who were duped into purchasing this pyramid scheme, do not have to pay our maintenance fees. Altho' we are paid up for 2 years. The ideal for us would be to get back what we paid and be relieved of our "ownership" without penalty. I don't feel like paying for the Eichner's to live a high life style at our expense! We live in San Diego, California and have to participate from a distance.

Ronaldb,

Good move on withdrawing your credit card. Hopefully more and more owners will do the same as they come to the realization that by continuing to pay fees to TMC they are funding our opponents and their lawyers.

All owners please stop giving TMC money.

Irene,

FABULOUS letter, thanks for posting.

Anyone who wants to get up to speed on TMC fraud just has to read your letter and follow the informational links you have provided. Lets hope lots of owners follow your lead and send letters.

Bob Biello

irenes93 wrote:

Hi,

Checking the NY Acris records my timeshare lot was deeded 114 times with numerous liens.

Here is a letter I wrote to the federal agency registering my complaint. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 1700 G Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20552 Re: Manhattan Club Timeshare Scam February 25, 2015

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to request your agency open a federal investigation into the practices of the Manhattan Club and its related companies.

The Manhattan Club is a New York company I purchased a timeshare, deeded property, from twelve years ago. The Manhattan Club was presented by the salesperson as a solid investment appreciating in value. The Manhattan Club, timeshare only, was presented as offering ease in booking. Maintenance Fees were $500 per year and purported to go up no more than 10% a year. None of these claims proved to be true. The Manhattan Club rents 60% of its rooms through online hotel websites like Expedia and hotel.com. The TMC timeshare I purchased for $22,000 was actually worth $1. Maintenance fees skyrocketed 400%. The Manhattan Club oversold their 286 units to over 18,000 people. Additionally, the Manhattan Club sold blocks of their rooms outright to BlueGreen Timeshares, Disney and RCI without notifying TMC timeshare owners. The Manhattan Club made 88 revisions to their TMC offering plan without notifying owners. The phone book sized offering plan from my purchase was only sent two weeks after the timeshare sale, too late to cancel. Despite, the lack of room availability, the Manhattan Club has been vicious in its demand that all TMC owners pay maintenance fees. The Manhattan Club has hired collection agencies, lawyers and foreclosed on owners who refused to pay the exorbitant maintenance fees for which they received nothing in return. One owner sold a timeshare, he paid $90,000 for, to the Manhattan Club for $1. Unable to use his timeshare he refused to pay fees and wanted to avoid having his credit ruined.

Here is recent media on the Manhattan Club scam:

Hotel in Manhattan Ordered to Halt Sale of Time Shares :http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/nyregion/manhattan-hotel-ordered-to-halt-sale-of-time-shares.html?_r=0 A.G. Schneiderman Announces Court Order Barring Sales In Manhattan Club Timeshare Hotel: http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-court-order-barring-sales-manhattan-club-timeshare-hotel Ritzy NYC time-share developer sued for fraud:http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110713/real_estate/110719963/ritzy-nyc-time-share-developer-sued-for-fraud# Timeshare a hotel hell: suit: http://nypost.com/2013/12/01/timeshare-a-hotel-hell-suit/ Big midtown time-share ordered to suspend sales:http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140725/REAL_ESTATE/140729888/big-midtown-timeshare-ordered-to-suspend-sales Swanky Manhattan Club timeshare a 'bait-and-switch' scheme, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/posh-manhattan-club-timeshare-scam-article-1.1880844

CNBC TV Special on TMC Scam http://youtu.be/tQiyeJhecDU

Here is the link to the press release issued by the Attorney General which outlines the charges against The Manhattan Club.

http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-court-order-barring

The NY State Supreme Court issued an injunction against The Manhattan Club. The Manhattan Club is enjoined from selling any new timeshares, or draining its bank accounts or the bank accounts of its affiliated companies. Here is the link to the actual injunction issued by the court.

http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Order%20signed%207-24-2014.pdf

The focus of the New York Attorney General’s Manhattan Club investigation is TMC’s violation of New York State real estate laws. The AG’s investigation will not impact the thousands of defrauded TMC owners.

I ask that your agency open a federal investigation into the fraudulent practices of the Manhattan Club and its related companies. Of the 14,000-18,000 TMC owners most do not live in New York State. This makes TMC appropriate for a federal investigation.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions regarding this matter.

Irene Smalls

I can not agree more with the other MC owners. I could never ever get a reservation at the MC and for good reasons; they reserve OUR units to NON MC members and then they tells us that there is no availability for the dates we requested. The first question they ask is "are you a member". I once called the MC, pretending NOT to be a member and suddenly there were units available. Therefore, they screw the MC Members twice and profit even more money. All members should get together somehow and indeed file a class action lawsuit. I would be more than happy to get half my money back from the original purchase price and be done with this mess. Maintenance fees are over $2000 per year. This is absurd and ridiculous. Sincerely yours, John Russo.

In checking the NY Acris records on our ownership, I found that we signed two Power of Attorney Documents, which were called "Timeshare" Power of Attorney. I found this by doing a search for ALL documents. Did Manhattan Club have any of you sign these documents? We purchased ours in January, 2003, and maybe it was a practice at that time. If we contact our own attorney, he or she should see these documents.

I hope you have stopped paying your maintenance, like I have.

I also found two powers of atty in the records, but was unable to view them.

mortgprof wrote:

In checking the NY Acris records on our ownership, I found that we signed two Power of Attorney Documents, which were called "Timeshare" Power of Attorney. I found this by doing a search for ALL documents. Did Manhattan Club have any of you sign these documents? We purchased ours in January, 2003, and maybe it was a practice at that time. If we contact our own attorney, he or she should see these documents.

We purchased in 1999 and found signed powers of attorney and other documents on ACRIS. All seemed in order - but hard to decode and associate the specific unit designations, addresses with anything meaningful.

(ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS, NOT SHOUTING) WE MUST LET THE NYS AG KNOW THAT THE MANHATTAN CLUB IS STILL BEING ADVERTISED FOR AVAILABLE ACCOMMODATIONS (ALMOST ON-THE-SPOT) AS A HOTEL (NOT A TIMESHARE), THIS ON booking.com AS EARLY AS 7:45 THIS MORNING. THE FIRM ASSUMPTION HERE IS THAT BRUCE EICHNER AND GANG OWN THOSE ACCOMMODATIONS FROM WHICH THEY ARE EARNING A HUGE PROFIT FROM IN SPITE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S DICTUM TO VIRTUALLY STOP DOING BUSINESS DURING THIS INVESTIGATIVE LAWSUIT. EICHNER KNOWS HE'S IN DEEP TROUBLE AS WITNESSED BY HIS DISMISSING HIS BUSINESS/CORPORATE/REAL ESTATE ATTORNEYS AND SECURING LEGAL REPRESENTATION FROM A HIGHLY-REGARDED CRIMINAL ATTORNEY. YET HE CONTINUES TO DISREGARD A DIRECT ORDER OF THE NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND THE COURT. I CONSIDER THIS THUMBING HIS NOSE AT OUR LEGAL SYSTEM IN GENERAL, AND DOING, AS USUAL, WHAT SUITS HIM AND HIS FRAUDULENT ASSOCIATES FINANCIALLY. LET'S KEEP THE PRESSURE ON EICHNER AND HIS SCHEMING MANHATTAN CLUB VENTURE UNTIL WE EMERGE VICTORIOUS FINANCIALLY AND OTHERWISE. OUR LEGAL SYSTEM OWES REMEDIES TO ALL OF US OWNERS/SHAREHOLDERS. THIS REMEDIATION SHOULD BE FORTHCOMING MUCH MORE EXPEDITIOUSLY THAN IT CURRENTLY IS. ANY ASSISTANCE WE CAN OFFER OUR ATTORNEY GENERAL, ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN, IN HIS EFFORTS TO EMERGE VICTORIOUS IN THIS LAWSUIT WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US OWNERS.

We have to open multiple fronts of attack on The Manhattan Club. The NY AG's investigation will likely not benefit out of NY owners. I have filed federal complaints about the TMC scam. Here is the info to file a federal complaint:

File a complaint with the USPS for mail fraud as well as with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 1700 G Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20552 Re: Manhattan Club Timeshare Scam

USPS Mail Fraud Application http://ehome.uspis.gov/fcsexternal/default.aspx ;

Sounds like we owners have very little legal standing in this matter! Realizing that there might very well be some individual credit ramifications, what if the majority of owners chose not to pay the outrageous annual fees, which could no doubt create some internal problems for the organization! Not sure of the legal ramifications however! Any input?