US Justice Department reiterates commitment to combatting foreign-based lottery fraud schemes targeting American consumers

Durrant Pate/Contributor

A Jamaican national was sentenced yesterday (October 28) to three years in prison for conspiring to run a Jamaica-based lottery scam that targeted elderly American consumers.

He is Greg Warren Clarke, 30, of Montego Bay, St James, who conspired to operate a fraudulent lottery scheme. The court was told that, between September 2013 and August 2015, Clarke worked with co-conspirators, including Claude Anthony Shaw, in a scheme in which victims were called and falsely told they had won over US$1 million in a lottery and needed to pay fees or taxes to claim their winnings.

Victims were instructed to send their money through wire transfers or the mail to Shaw and other individuals. As part of the conspiracy, Clarke and Shaw discussed over the phone and through cell phone text messages plans to receive victims’ money.

Clarke mastermind of the scamming operation

At Clarke’s direction, Shaw received money from victims through wire transfers and the mail.

The prosecution led evidence that Clarke and Shaw discussed arrangements for victims to send money to other individuals with whom Shaw worked.

Clarke then instructed Shaw to send the victims’ money to Clarke in Jamaica, usually through wire transfers. Victims who sent money to Clarke and his co-conspirators never received any lottery winnings. Clarke pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud for his role in the scam on August 19.

Shaw previously pleaded guilty to mail fraud in the US District Court in Fort Lauderdale. In June 2017, he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Justice Department taking the fight to scammers

“Today’s sentencing demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to combatting foreign-based lottery fraud schemes targeting American consumers,” declared Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

Boynton promised that “the perpetrators of these schemes will be prosecuted, regardless of where they live and operate”.

Acting Inspector in Charge Juan A. Vargas, of the US Postal Inspection Service Miami Division, said: “The Postal Inspection Service will continue to actively investigate fraudulent lottery schemes based in Jamaica directed at fleecing victims in the United States.”

Vargas added: “We will not allow the fraudsters responsible for these Jamaican lottery scams to use the U.S. mail to commit their crime.”

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Jamaica to secure the arrest and extradition of Clarke. The US Postal Inspection Service investigated the case.

Senior Trial Attorney Arturo DeCastro, of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch prosecuted the case.

READ: Another alleged Jamaican lottery scammer extradited to US