SEATTLE — An Olympia couple is being sued by the state of Washington, which says the pair scammed 30,000 timeshare owners.
The civil lawsuit announced by Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Thursday is part of a national crackdown coordinated by the Federal Trade Commission.
The attorney general’s office says Jonathan and Christine Gibbs fooled elderly consumers into paying them thousands of dollars to transfer ownership of their vacation timeshares to shell corporations.
Ferguson describes the scam as a large, complicated scheme that harmed about 30,000 consumers nationwide, including 1,500 people in Washington state. He says the couple collected more than $70 million while operating as 25 different companies.
