In an earlier statement, The Palace Company claimed that the Akeos “fraudulently disputed legitimate credit card charges and publicly encouraged others to do the same.”
A Michigan couple has been released from a Mexican prison after agreeing to pay damages to a timeshare company.
According to CNN, 58-year-old Navy veteran Paul Akeo and his wife, Christy, were taken into custody by Mexican law enforcement shortly after landing in Cancun on March 4, 2025.
Prosecutors for the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, where Cancun is located, alleged that the Akeos defrauded The Palace Company. The couple was released, and their criminal charges dismissed, after they agreed to settle claims with The Palace Company out of court.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Akeo family will pay a six-figure settlement to The Palace Company. Once payment has been made and processed, the damages will be redistributed to three non-profit organizations.
CNN notes that the dispute stems from a 2021 timeshare agreement signed between the Akeos and Palace Elite, a subsidiary of The Palace Company.
In an earlier statement, The Palace Company claimed that the Akeos “fraudulently disputed legitimate credit card charges and publicly encouraged others to do the same.”
“The Akeos began disputing their membership charges with their credit card companies,” Palace said in a March statement. “These disputes—despite relating to services they had actively used—were granted.”
A spokesperson for Palace claims that, after returning home to Michigan in 2021, the Akeos took to Facebook, where they “bragged about these chargebacks and encouraged others to follow suit.”
Attorneys for the Michigan couple had previously insisted that The Palace Company’s allegations were false, emphasizing that the Akeos had successfully contested charges from a resort company that the family says was in breach of contract.
The Akeos have also thanked their local congressman, Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett, for advocating for the couple’s release. In a separate statement, the Akeos’ children, Lindsey Hull and Michael Lemke, highlighted Rep. Barrett’s contribution to negotiations, saying that he had personally traveled to Mexico to ensure their parents’ release.
“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,” Hull and Lemke said in a statement published to Rep. Barrett’s website. “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,” they added.
Hull and Lemke have said, since returning to the United States, their parents have had to receive treatment for “illnesses and trauma inflicted upon them during their captivity.”
In its own statement, The Palace Company thanked Rep. Barrett, along with President Donald Trump and Special Envoy Adam Boehler, for facilitating negotiations.
“The Palace Company and the Akeos agree that $116,587.84, the amount that was contested by the Akeos and refunded to them by American Express, will be donated to a bona fide established nonprofit in Mexico benefiting orphan children,” a Palace Company spokesperson said. “Each party regrets that this incident occurred.”
Sources
Michigan couple held in Mexico jail for a month after timeshare dispute is back in U.S.
Join the conversation!