Timeshare exit company owner indicted in fraud scheme

A Springfield man who operated a handful of timeshare exit companies has been indicted for fraud and for failing to pay federal taxes, the U.S. government alleges.

Brian Scroggs, 52, was charged in a six-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield on May 14, according to a news release issued Friday by the office of Teresa Moore, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Scroggs owned Springfield companies Vacation Consulting Services LLC and The Transfer Group LLC from 2014 until early 2019, and he started operating Real Travel LLC in mid-2018. Federal officials say Real Travel, registered in Arkansas, was used to operate Vacation Consulting Services under a different name "by all intents and purposes."

The indictment includes three counts of wire fraud related to three clients who were allegedly defrauded of more than $32,000, were not released from their timeshare agreements and did not receive a refund, according to the release.

Vacation Consulting Services and Real Travel reportedly offered to get timeshare owners out of their timeshare contracts for a fee. If that could not be accomplished, the companies claimed they would buy the timeshare contracts or refund the fee.

According to the indictment, Scroggs knew the timeshare industry was no longer interested in working with timeshare exit companies by January 2019. Scroggs allegedly continued to solicit new clients despite this knowledge.

The federal indictment additionally charges Scroggs with three counts of failure to pay federal employment taxes. Scroggs, according to the release, allegedly failed to pay the IRS $333,483 in federal income taxes and Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes that were withheld from employee paychecks during the third and fourth quarters of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019.

Scroggs and his companies have faced litigation from the Missouri attorney general's office, and an Arkansas court in 2021 entered a judgment against Scroggs, according to past reporting.