Appeared in court on nine-count indictment of scamming elderly victims

Durrant Pate/Contributor

A resident of Montego Bay, St James in Jamaica has been extradited to the United States and is now facing trial on lottery scamming charges.

He is 38-year-old Antony L. Stewart, who has been charged in a nine-count indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in December 2019 and was unsealed after the defendant’s extradition.  

Stewart made his initial appearance in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina on charges related to his participation in a lottery scheme victimising older persons. in the United States. According to the unsealed indictment, Stewart and his co-conspirators sought to unlawfully enrich themselves through a fraudulent lottery scheme targeting the elderly.

Victims throughout the United States received phone calls in which they were falsely informed that they had won cash prizes totaling over US$1 million and needed to pay fees in order to claim their winnings.

Allegations in the indictment

The indictment alleges that victims were instructed on how to send their money, including through the use of money transmitter services, wire transfers, and the US Postal Service, and to whom. The indictment further alleges victims were instructed to purchase electronics and other expensive goods and to send them to Stewart’s co-conspirators, who ultimately forwarded the goods and money to Stewart in Jamaica. The victims never received any “winnings”.

The case is being prosecuted by trial attorneys Raquel Toledo and Ryan E. Norman of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, with the assistance of Assistant US Attorney Jenny Sugar for the Western District of North Carolina.

The US Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. The Justice Department has been carrying out extensive and broad-based efforts to combat elder fraud, seeking to halt the widespread losses seniors suffer from fraud schemes.

The Department is advising interested parties that the best method for prevention, however, is by sharing information about the various types of elder fraud schemes with relatives, friends, neighbours and other seniors who can use that information to protect themselves.

READ: Jamaican lottery scammer sentenced to three years by US court