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A Michigan couple has been released from a Mexican prison after spending nearly a month behind bars over a payment dispute with a timeshare company.
Paul, 58, and Christy Akeo, 60, “have been released from custody and have returned to Lansing, Michigan,” according to a statement from their lawyers on April 3.
Prosecutors in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo accused the couple of cancelling 13 credit card payments to a hotel chain worth approximately $116,500 in 2022, which they said constituted fraud, CNN reported.
The couple denied the allegations, saying that their credit card company had refunded the amount when the resort firm, The Palace Company, failed to provide services that were promised. A judge dismissed the criminal case and ordered the release of the couple after the state attorney of Quintana Roo reached an agreement with the Akeos and the timeshare company.
Under the terms of the agreement, $116,587.84 will be donated to a non-profit organization in Mexico benefiting orphan children.
“Each party regrets that this incident occurred,” a joint statement from the Akeos and The Palace Company said.
The couple was taken into custody shortly after their plane landed in Cancun on March 4 for allegedly defrauding the hospitality company, Palace Elite Resorts. The company previously claimed the couple had defrauded it through $117,000 of chargebacks on their American Express card after they purchased a timeshare membership with them several years earlier.
Palace Elite Resorts filed a complaint with the Mexican public prosecutor, which led to the arrests of the Akeos.
The couple denied the company’s allegations, and their law firm said that they were “held captive for 32 days in Cereso Cancun prison.”
“Make no mistake, what they’re doing is they are holding two Americans hostage because they want them to pay them money,” the couple’s lawyer John Manly told CBS.
Michigan Republican Rep. Tom Barrett travelled to Mexico to visit the couple and bring them back home.
Barrett posted on X on April 2, demanding “their release after learning yesterday of their deteriorating physical condition.”
“Enough is enough, after spending nearly a month in a maximum security Mexican prison over what amounts to a contract dispute on a time-share, it’s long overdue for the Mexican authorities to release Paul and Christy,” Barrett wrote.
In another post, Barrett said he travelled directly to the prison where the Akeos were being held upon landing in Mexico.
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“I met with them personally for an hour and learned of the horrific conditions they are facing — rubbled walls, overcrowded cells, toilets that don’t flush, and disgusting food. This has left them scared, frustrated, and struggling to find hope. I assured them that I am doing everything I can to urgently secure their safe release,” Barrett wrote.
He said that following the meeting with the Akeos, he met with the president of Quintana Roo Supreme Court to “expedite any relief we can provide.”
One day later, Barrett shared a video of the Akeos boarding a plane to return to Michigan, writing, “Paul and Christy Akeo are coming home. Mission accomplished.”
On March 24, the couple’s daughter, Lindsey Hull, said her mother and stepfather were being “held without bail in a maximum-security Mexican prison” in a Facebook post.
“The last 21 days of being held captive is a direct result of my parents simply challenging wrongful credit card charges made by The Palace Company, aka Palace Resorts with American Express. American Express sided with my mom and Paul as a response to these wrongful charges,” Hull wrote in a statement on March 24.
“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. The Palace Company is demanding $250,000, the signing of an NDA that does not even guarantee their release, as well as a Facebook post made by our parents to be left up for 1 week claiming all responsibility and fault for the torture they have endured throughout the last 3 weeks,” Hull continued.
Hull claimed that The Palace Company was also demanding a public apology from her parents, which she said was “absolutely sickening.”
“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.
“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,” she added.
Hull said she had brought up her concerns with the U.S. Consulate over the course of three weeks, however they allegedly didn’t organize any visitation with jailed U.S. citizens until “17 days into their imprisonment.”
“In other words, the US Consulate and the US Embassy have been nothing short of useless,” Hull added.
She said that her family had spent “thousands upon thousands of dollars towards Mexican legal representation.”
“But unfortunately that only goes so far when dealing with this level of corruption and extortion. We have also met prior demands given to us by The Palace Company and yet they have had no serious response to letting our parents free,” Hull claimed in her post.
Hull shared a video of her parents returning home on April 4, writing, “When mom and dad are finally home after 30 days!!!”
After their return, the couple’s lawyers thanked Special Envoy Adam Boehler, U.S. President Donald Trump and Barrett, calling him a “hero in my book.”
“President Trump, I know he personally got involved with this and wanted them home, so I give him a lot of credit,” Manly said to CNN. “No American should have to endure what these people have endured. But for these three men, I think they’d still be sitting there.”
In a statement, Hull thanked government officials for helping to organize her parents’ release and noted Barrett’s efforts.
“He traveled to Cancun at great personal risk, camped out at the prison and made it clear that he would not return home without them,” she said in a statement on April 3. “His heroic efforts as a veteran represent the finest traditions of our nation’s military to never leave an American behind.”
“No American should be held hostage to the demands of a private company anywhere in the world,” she said.
Hull added her parents will be treated for “illnesses and trauma” inflicted upon them during their captivity.
— With files from Reuters
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