Michigan grandparents imprisoned in Mexico timeshare dispute as daughter begs for their release
Michigan couple Christy and Paul Akeo have been detained in a Cancun, Mexico, prison for weeks over a timeshare dispute. Their daughter is begging for their release.
A Michigan couple has been detained for weeks in Mexico after what their attorney described as a disagreement over their timeshare in Cancun.
Christy Akeo, 60, and Paul Akeo, 58, who live in Spring Arbor, Michigan, have been held in a Cereso, Cancun, prison for more than three weeks since they traveled there for vacation earlier this month, their daughter and attorney told Fox News Digital.
"She doesn't have anything. You don't even get toilet paper in these places. So, it's just a very, very scary environment, from what she explained," Lindsey Lemke Hull, Christy Akeo’s daughter, told Fox News Digital of her mother. "I think she tends to keep a lot from my brother and I when we talk to her, just out of protection. … We are fearful for her … life, Paul's life, just because we don't know what's going to happen to them at any given time."
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On March 4, Christy and Paul were traveling to a resort at Isla Mujeres. Mexican authorities arrested them upon arrival and charged them with fraud for disputing credit card charges stemming from a timeshare they purchased in 2021 at a different resort in Cancun.
Lemke Hull said she and her brother haven't heard from Paul, her stepfather and a 21-year Navy veteran and Michigan State Police employee, at all since they were detained, and they've only been granted occasional 5-minute phone calls with their mother.
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"He's done nothing wrong. I believe he's a political prisoner," attorney John Manly, who is representing the Akeos, told Fox News Digital of Paul Akeo. "I believe he's targeted because he's a veteran. He's also an employee of the Michigan State Police."
Manly expressed his belief that the Akeos are being held by Mexico, in part, as retaliation against the United States and the Trump administration's punitive actions toward Mexico since taking office.
"The place they're at is a hellhole," Manly said. "It's filled with cartel members, drug dealers, rapists, murderers. Imagine what that's like every day. For this grandmother and veteran who just wanted to go on vacation. And until today, until really the last couple of days, no one has helped them."
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They were detained over a dispute with their timeshare purchased through a resort company called Palace Elite Resorts, which owns various resort properties in Mexico and has offices in Florida. In 2021, the Akeos purchased a Cancun timeshare for $6,932 per month for a term of 11 years.
In June 2022, Paul filed a complaint with American Express alleging that Palace breached their contract and failed to provide the goods and services they paid for via Paul's American Express Card, which Palace Elite Resorts contested.
American Express investigated the complaint and sided with the Akeos, issuing a chargeback of more than $116,000 in September 2022, their attorney said.
"Ultimately, American Express sided with my parents and they were able to receive their money back from the wrongful charges from Palace Resorts," Lemke Hull said. "During that process, my parents even hired a timeshare lawyer to make sure that they were going about the situation correctly and making sure they were crossing their t's, dotting their i's. And we thought this situation was done. We thought it was handled."
The Palace Company, local media and authorities in Mexico are telling a different story about the Akeos, saying they defrauded the hotel company out of more than $100,000.
Mexican authorities say the Akeos signed their timeshare contract in 2021, but in 2022, the hotel received 13 canceled transactions stemming from Paul's credit card totaling $116,587, or more than 2.4 million pesos, according to a press release from the Attorney General's Office of the State of Quintana Roo.
The Palace Company told Fox News Digital in a statement that "between 2016 and 2021, the Akeos knowingly and willingly entered into 19 separate membership agreements with Palace Elite (attached), investing over $1.4 million USD in exchange for exclusive benefits and rates intended strictly for personal use."
"In 2021," the company continued, "they were found to be in material breach of those agreements after promoting and profiting from their benefits on social media—conduct explicitly prohibited under the terms they agreed to. They were formally notified of this violation and, in April 2022, signed a waiver acknowledging their breach and committing to refrain from any further use of Palace Elite branding or commentary about the company."
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After signing the waiver, the Palace Company alleged, the Akeos "began disputing their membership charges with their credit card companies."
"These disputes—despite relating to services they had actively used—were granted, resulting in over $100,000 USD in reversed payments and substantial financial harm to Palace Elite," the Palace Company said.
Palace Elite filed a criminal complaint in August 2023.
The Akeos’ attorney, responding to the Palace’s statement, said Christy wrote to a Palace representative on April 8, 2022, saying she and Paul "do still believe we have done nothing wrong to breach our contract but feel Palace has given us no other option but to sign the documents, even though this is against our better judgment."
"We love Palace Resorts and would miss it if we could not go," she wrote at the time.
Her attorney said there is dispute over whether the Akeos had the right to market and sell their timeshare "weeks" at the resort to third parties, but they believe the matter should be resolved in a civil suit and should not have resulted in the Akeos being sent to prison.
American Express did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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Republican Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett told Fox News Digital in a statement that he has been made aware of the Akeos’ situation.
"I have spoken to their family and assured them that my team and I took immediate action and are doing everything we can to help," he said. "I have been in contact and will continue working with the White House, State Department, and law enforcement partners in Michigan to ensure this situation is resolved as urgently and safely as possible."
The State Department told Fox News Digital in a statement that it is aware of reports of the detention of two U.S. citizens in Mexico, and the Department takes its commitment to assist U.S. citizens abroad seriously. Due to privacy considerations, the Department declined further comment on the matter.
Lemke Hull and Manly hope President Trump gets involved in trying to get her parents released, saying they believe he is the only person who can really help them.
"I believe the only person that would be able to release them to freedom is President Trump. We need his help. Big time," she said.
A government source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital the Department has escalated the matter with the American consular agency in Cancun.
A lawyer for Palace Elite filed a complaint against the Akeos with Mexican authorities, who then issued an arrest warrant, the Quintana Roo AG’s office said in a press release.
Palace Resorts allegedly made a verbal demand for a $250,000 payment from the Akeos in exchange for their release or favorable treatment, which they have not agreed to pay, according to the couple's attorney.
A spokesperson for the Palace Company confirmed that a payment of $250,000 was proposed as part of a restitution agreement, in which the Palace Company also requested closure of a private Facebook group that Christy moderated called "Palace Resorts Members – Disappointed & Frustrated – Discuss & Take Action," an admission of guilt and public apology from the Akeos, and their signature on a non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreement.
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The Akeos’ daughter, Lemke Hull — a two-time national champion gymnast who helped expose former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar's sexual abuse —refused to make the payment for their release at the request of her parents.
The Palace Company also offered to pay the Akeos a nominal sum in exchange for an agreement that they would not publish negative social media posts about Palace Elite Resorts, according to a copy of the proposed agreement shared with Fox News Digital.
The proposed non-disparagement agreement states that the Akeos "shall refrain from making or publishing, in writing or verbally … any disparaging, derogatory, or negative comments about PALACE ELITE RESORTS, S.A. DE C.V., together with its ownership … in or on websites, interviews, press releases, news releases, media releases, press statements or video releases, articles, commentaries, written, audio or visual (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, or the like, advertising or marketing materials, blogs, chat-rooms, etc.)."
In 2023, Christy joined the "Palace Resorts Members – Disappointed & Frustrated – Discuss & Take Action," which had about 8,000 users, in which Palace members discuss their grievances with the resort company. Christy then became a moderator of the group.
The non-disparagement agreement, which the Akeos did not sign, requests that the Akeos each "expressly acknowledge that the Disparaging Statements have damaged, and continue to damage, Palace Elite causing damages in excess of SEVEN MILLION U.S. Dollars ($7,000,000.00)."
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An INTERPOL Red Notice was issued to facilitate the couple's arrest. A Mexico judge has ruled that the case will proceed to trial, according to both the Akeos and the Palace Company. The Akeos will remain in custody until then.
