Anthony Stewart, a Jamaican businessman accused of being the mastermind behind a local lottery scamming group appeared in a US court for the first time after being extradited from Jamaica.
Stewart was apprehended and extradited after the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs collaborated with law enforcement partners in Jamaica.
In September, the 38- year-old waived his right to an extradition hearing when he appeared in the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Court.
He is 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 December 2019 in the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
The indictment was unsealed following the defendant’s extradition.
Stewart and his co-conspirators, according to the unsealed indictment, sought to illegally enrich themselves through a fraudulent lottery scheme targeting the elderly.
According to the Department of Justice, victims across the United States received phone calls falsely informing them that they had won cash prizes totaling more than $1 million and that they needed to pay fees to claim their winnings.
The indictment alleges that the victims were told how and to whom to transfer their money, including through money transmitter services, wire transfers, and the US Postal Service.
The indictment also alleged that the victims were instructed to buy electronics and other high-priced items and send them to Stewart’s co-conspirators, who then forwarded the products and money to Stewart in Jamaica.
The victims never received any winnings.
