By Nisqually Valley News staff
American couple Paul and Christy Akeo were arrested by members of the Mexican National Guard, in collaboration with Interpol Mexico, after allegedly defrauding a Cancun, Mexico, hotel out of more than $116,000 U.S. dollars.
Paul Akeo is a Yelm High School graduate.
The two were wanted by Interpol Mexico and were taken into custody on Wednesday, March 5, on charges of fraud dating back to 2021, according to Riviera Maya News, a local news outlet in Riviera Maya, Mexico.
In a statement, authorities wrote the two entered a contract for sale of membership rights at a hotel chain in Cancun, Mexico, on Nov. 21, 2021, which gave them benefits such as “preferential rates on the company’s products and services.”
The couple allegedly left a credit card with Paul — a U.S. Navy veteran, listed as the cardholder — where the monthly membership charges would be made as collateral. The Riviera Maya News reported the hotel chain received 13 notifications via email between Aug. 31, 2022, and Nov. 4, 2022, from the card’s banking institution, which reported the cancellation of 13 transactions made by Paul. Authorities reported these cancellations totaled $116,587, which was equivalent to over 2.4 million pesos at the time.
The American couple was officially charged with defrauding the Cancun hotel chain out of over $100,000 as of Saturday, March 15.
Following the arrest, Christy’s daughter and Paul’s stepdaughter, Lindsey Hull, wrote on Facebook that “the last 21 days of torture my parents have been through is a direct response of The Palace Company’s corruption, extortion, retaliation and blackmail against our parents.”
She claims her parents are imprisoned because they simply challenged “wrongful charges” made by The Palace Company, or Palace Resorts, through American Express. She claims the company is “demanding” $250,000, the signing of an non-disclosure agreement that “does not even guarantee their release,” as well as a Facebook post, made by her parents, “claiming all responsibility and fault for the torture they have endured throughout the last three weeks.”
“My mom and Paul are being denied medical attention, denied proper communication and publicly defamed. They have been held captive in prison for 21 days and despite asking numerous times to speak to Paul, we have yet to have any communication with him,” Hull wrote online. “My mom has lost 25 lbs. in 20 days due to inability to eat as the prison is serving her food they are aware she is allergic to. She also has a severe rash all over her body they refuse to treat. These are all concerns that have been brought up numerous times to the US Consulate over the last 3 weeks, yet they failed to have any sort of visit with my parents until 17 DAYS into their imprisonment. In other words, the US Consulate and the US Embassy have been nothing short of useless.”
Read The Riviera Maya’s reporting on the arrests of Paul and Christy Akeo online at https://tinyurl.com/CancunArrest1 and at https://tinyurl.com/CancunArrest2.
