Michigan couple held in Mexico jail for a month after timeshare dispute is back in U.S.
A Michigan couple who were jailed in Mexico for almost a month after they disputed charges related to a Mexican timeshare have returned to the United States, their lawyers said Thursday.
Christy and Paul Akeo, of Spring Arbor, "have been released from custody and have returned to Lansing, Michigan," their law firm said in a statement.
The state attorney of Quintana Roo said the couple reached an agreement with the timeshare company for an amount of money it did not disclose. A judge then dismissed the criminal case and ordered their release, the prosecutor's office said.
The family has said the Akeos were the victims of 'a kidnapping and extortion attempt' by a Mexican timeshare company.
Palace Elite Resorts, a Mexican hospitality company, previously said the couple defrauded it through $117,000 of chargebacks on their American Express card, in which American Express takes back funds from a vendor.
The couple bought a timeshare membership with the company several years earlier, Palace Elite Resorts said.
The company said it filed a complaint with the Mexican public prosecutor, which then led to the arrests of the Akeos.
The couple denies the allegations, and their law firm said Thursday that they were 'held captive for 32 days in Cereso Cancun prison.'
John Manly, an attorney for the Akeos, previously called the fraud charges 'utterly false.'
'The Akeos are being held because they successfully disputed Palace's charges and failure to deliver services with American Express, criticized the company online and alerted others who felt wronged by Palace,' he said.
The Akeo family thanked President Donald Trump, his special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, and Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., "for working tirelessly for the release of Paul and Christy Akeo."
Barrett went to Mexico and "camped out at the prison and made it clear that he would not return home without them," the family said.
"Through four straight weeks of fear and uncertainty, Congressman Barrett's commitment to bringing our parents home safely provided us with hope and reassurance," the Akeo family said.
Palace Elite Resorts did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
The prosecutor's office said the money from the settlement will go to three nonprofit groups.
"The Office of the Prosecutor reiterates its commitment to justice and social welfare, acting in accordance with the law to guarantee compensation for damages and respect for the rights of all parties involved," the prosecutor's office said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
10 hours ago
Election observers voice serious concerns about Mexico's contentious judicial elections
MEXICO CITY -- Abysmal voter turnout, political polarization and voting 'cheat sheets' were among the reasons an observation mission for Mexico's historic judicial elections on Friday issued a recommendation to other countries in the region: don't try this at home. In their report, the electoral mission from the Organization of American States said the June 1 election was 'extremely complex' and 'polarizing,' and was marked by a 'widespread lack of awareness' among voters about what they were voting for and who the thousands of candidates were. Given the findings, the mission concluded that 'it does not recommend this model of judge selection be replicated in other countries in the region.' In Sunday's vote, Mexicans elected 881 federal judges, including a new Supreme Court, and another 1,800 state judges as part of a complete overhaul of the judiciary. The process was carried out following a constitutional reform approved last year by a Congress with a ruling-party majority. The overhaul fueled protests and criticism within Mexico and by the U.S. and Canadian governments, which warned of a potential loss of judicial independence and the politicization of justice in Mexico. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her mentor and architect of the overhaul, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed they want to root out corruption in the judiciary, which most Mexicans agree is broken. Mexico's electoral authority said this week that voter turnout was 13%, significantly lower than the 60% turnout in last year's general elections. In the Friday report, the OAS mission — led by former Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz Valenzuela — expressed concern over 'the low level of citizen participation' and noted that 'this is one of the lowest turnout levels in the region.' Observers also pointed to the 'high percentage' of null and unmarked ballots, which exceeded 10%. 'It's necessary to carry out a comprehensive reflection on the nature of the (electoral) process and how it was conducted,' the report concluded. The OAS's 16-member observation mission also raised concerns about the nine candidates elected to join Mexico's Supreme Court who 'were promoted in physical and digital 'cheat sheets.'" While parties were not allowed to advocate for candidates, pamphlets known as 'accordions' guiding voters on which candidates to vote for were widely distributed. Mexican electoral authorities investigated complaints against the ruling Morena party and other opposition groups that distributed the voter guides in communities across the capital and other cities in the weeks leading up to the vote. The agency also ordered that a website featuring a digital cheat sheet with Morena-aligned candidates for the Supreme Court and other top tribunals be taken down. OAS observers also noted that six of the nine candidates elected to the high court had been nominated by the government controlled by Morena, and the remaining three were justices appointed by López Obrador, 'which raises reasonable doubts about the autonomy and independence of the highest court in relation to the Executive.'
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Los Angeles ICE raids spark protests, fear, outrage. 'Our community is under attack'
A series of surprise U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps in downtown Los Angeles on Friday prompted fierce pushback from elected officials and protesters, who decried the enforcement actions as "cruel and unnecessary" and said they stoked fear in the immigrant community. Tensions remained high in downtown into the evening. The Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly and ordered around 200 protesters who remained gathered by the Los Angeles Federal Building to disperse around 7 p.m. Chaos erupted earlier in the day in the heart of the Fashion District after federal immigration authorities detained employees inside a clothing wholesaler, and used flash-bang grenades and pepper spray on a crowd protesting the raid around 1:30 p.m. Hundreds of people then rallied outside the Los Angeles Federal Building at 4 p.m., condemning the crackdown and demanding the release of Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta, who was injured and detained while documenting a raid, according to a statement from the labor union. 'Our community is under attack and has been terrorized,' Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, told the crowd of protesters. 'These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers.' Forty-four people were administratively arrested and one person was arrested for obstruction during Friday's immigration action, said Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE. Federal agents executed four search warrants related to the suspected harboring of people illegally in the country at three locations in central Los Angeles, she said. Carlos González Gutiérrez, Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles, said his team has identified at least 11 Mexican nationals who were detained during raids across the Southland. The office is offering them legal services, and he said he is monitoring detention conditions. 'The detention center seems to be at full capacity,' he said. 'Every cell seems to be occupied.' CHIRLA received more than 50 calls on its hotline, with reports of ICE sightings and men in military garb in parking lots and in locations near schools, Home Depot stores and a doughnut shop, according to Salas. Connie Chung Joe, the chief executive of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, said she received a report of immigration enforcement going to a school in Koreatown. Read more: Multiple immigration sweeps reported across L.A., with a tense standoff downtown Huerta, 58, was treated at a hospital and then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A., where he remained in custody as of 5:30 p.m., according to an SEIU spokesperson. 'What happened to me is not about me; This is about something much bigger," he said in a statement from the hospital. "This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that's happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice." In a statement on X, U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli alleged that Huerta had deliberately obstructed federal agents' access to a worksite where they were executing a warrant by blocking their vehicle Friday morning. Huerta was arrested on suspicion of interfering with federal officers and will be arraigned Monday, Essayli said. Elected officials representing Los Angeles at the city, county, state and federal levels released a flurry of statements condemning Huerta's arrest, criticizing the raids and decrying the Trump administration's escalation of deportations. "SEIU California President David Huerta was injured by federal agents and wrongfully detained," said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn. "I am calling for his immediate release. This is a democracy. People have a right to peacefully protest, to observe law enforcement activity, and to speak out against injustice." Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who was appointed by President Trump to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, pushed back on elected leaders' defense of Huerta. "There is not a First Amendment right to physically obstruct law enforcement officers from executing a duly issued warrant,' Dhillon said. For several hours on Friday, advocates gathered outside Ambiance Apparel's warehouse shouting legal advice to those being detained inside. They stood on a long bed truck parked in the middle of the street, jamming traffic on the busy road. 'You are not alone,' one said into a megaphone drowning out the sounds of the crowd. 'Do not sign anything. Do not tell them where you are from.' Katina Garcia, 18, pressed her face to the glass, looking for her undocumented father who had gone to work there that morning, like any other. 'We never thought it would happen to us," she said, 'I'm in disbelief.' After a couple of hours a legion of federal agents dressed in riot gear descended on Ambiance Apparel to confront more than 100 people who had gathered outside. They announced their arrival by blaring their truck sirens as their line of armored personnel carriers. 'Pigs,' one man shouted during the raucous scene. 'Fascists,' another said. The agents disembarked and surrounded the gates protesters had tried to block. Some threw objects at the armed agents, as they yelled and filmed them. To disburse the crowd, pepper spray was used. The agents who had been inside the store walked out at least a dozen individuals and boarded them in the vans as other agents in riot gear taped off the area. 'How do you sleep at night, tearing apart families,' one woman screamed as a stoic agent. 'What if they took your family?" The vans filled with migrants left first, followed by the line of tactical vehicles and trucks. The crowd followed, filming with cellphones and surrounding the vehicles for at least a block. The agents then used what appeared at least a dozen rounds of flash-bang grenades and pepper spray before protesters dispersed. A group of 11 L.A. City Councilmembers released a joint statement lambasting the "indiscriminate targeting of children and families" and vowing to fight to protect immigrants. "We condemn this in no uncertain terms: Los Angeles was built by immigrants and it thrives because of immigrants," the group stated. "We will not abide by fear tactics to support extreme political agendas that aim to stoke fear and spread discord in our city." The Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department released statements saying they were aware of the local immigration actions on Friday. Both agencies said they will neither participate in any enforcement of civil immigration laws nor seek to determine an individual's immigration status. "We want our residents to know that when they call for help, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will respond, investigate and protect everyone — regardless of a person's legal status," the department said in a statement. Elected officials including Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, Councilmember Ysabel Jurado and Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) raised concerns over reports that the LAPD was assisting ICE on Friday. Videos shared on social media showed LAPD officers gathering at 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, where a crowd was protesting the immigration action at Ambiance Apparel's warehouse. "We received an officer needs help call from our federal partners and responded to separate the parties to maintain order," said LAPD spokesperson Jennifer Forkish. "We had nothing to do with the operation, but we do have an obligation to respond to any law enforcement agency requesting urgent assistance." Friday's escalation of immigration actions in Los Angeles comes as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller pushes ICE to start making at least 3,000 arrests a day and meet President Trump's mandate to carry out the largest deportation effort in history. This week, CBS reported that ICE had recorded 2,000 arrests each day, a major increase from the daily average of 660 arrests reported by the agency during Trump's first 100 days back at the White House. Miller and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass clashed on X Friday evening after she posted a statement saying she was deeply angered by the immigration actions and that her office will not stand for it. Miller responded, "You have no say in this at all. Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced." The Los Angeles raids also come on the heels of several recent enforcement actions in the Southland — including an incident where ICE agents deployed flash-bang grenades during operations at two San Diego restaurants, and a raid at an underground nightclub in Los Angeles where Chinese and Taiwanese nationals were detained. On Friday afternoon, U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla — alongside California representatives Scott Peters and Juan Vargas — demanded an investigation into the tactics used during the San Diego raids. 'This troubling incident is not an isolated case. Rather, it appears to be part of a broader pattern of escalated and theatrical immigration enforcement operations across the country,' stated the lawmakers. "These events raise serious questions about the appropriateness, proportionality, and execution of ICE tactics.' Times staff writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
EXCLUSIVE: White House marks 'blockbuster' week for Trump's immigration agenda
EXCLUSIVE: Despite stunning news about the return of illegal alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Friday afternoon, the White House is celebrating a "blockbuster" week for President Donald Trump's immigration agenda. "It's a bad day to be an illegal alien and a great day to be an American," a spokesperson said. On the heels of "Operation Patriot," the largest ICE operation ever, which saw the arrest of nearly 1,500 illegal aliens in the deep blue state of Massachusetts, ICE arrests surged this week, with agents making over 2,000 arrests Tuesday and nearly 2,500 Wednesday. Trump's Border Wall Expansion Moves Forward In Several Critical Areas: 'Crisis Is Not Yet Over' Overall, ICE has arrested over 100,000 illegal immigrants since Trump took office. Over the weekend, ICE officials and local authorities in South Carolina raided a "cartel after-party" where 80 illegal aliens were arrested, including two alleged "high-level cartel members" of the Mexican cartel Los Zetas and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to The Post and Courier. Read On The Fox News App According to the outlet, one of the individuals arrested, a Honduran national, has been named in an international murder case. The New York Times also reported that deportation flights rose to the highest level yet under the Trump administration. This comes as ICE announced this week that it had deported 142 criminal aliens to Mexico from the Houston area, including child predators, gang members, human traffickers and one individual convicted of making terroristic threats. On Monday, ICE announced that, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, it had made a "game-changing" seizure of 50,000 kilograms of meth ingredients destined for the Sinaloa Cartel. Trump Administration Drops Hammer On 'Narco Sub' Cocaine Ring As Cartels Threaten Us Borders Chad Plantz, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations Houston, said the collaboration provides authorities "with a game-changing method to stay one step ahead of the cartels by disrupting the flow of chemicals that they depend on to produce illicit narcotics." A source familiar with the operations shared with Fox News Digital a listing of some of the arrests made by ICE this week. Kilmar Abrego Garcia Indicted On Human Trafficking Charges, Ordered To Appear Before Judge In Nashville These arrests included a Salvadoran national arrested in Los Angeles for sodomy of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Chicago for criminal sexual assault of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Houston for indecent sexual contact with a child, a Honduran national arrested in El Paso for possession of child pornography and a Laotian national arrested for murder and attempted murder. San Diego Authorities Arrest 3 Noncitizens Allegedly Involved In Transporting More Than $5M Worth Of Meth White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called this week "a blockbuster week for President Trump's immigration agenda." "President Trump is doing exactly what he promised the American people — securing the Southern border and deporting illegal aliens," said Jackson. "The President is cracking down on cartels, cutting the flow of fentanyl coming across our border by over half in the last year," she added. "Under President Trump's America First leadership, it's a bad day to be an illegal alien and a great day to be an American."Original article source: EXCLUSIVE: White House marks 'blockbuster' week for Trump's immigration agenda
