A Jamaican man has appeared in a Miami Federal court after he was extradited on charges relating to his participation in a bogus lottery scheme that targeted elderly victims in the United States.
Greg Warren Clarke, 29, of Montego Bay, was charged in a six-count indictment with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and international money laundering.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the indictment was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in April 2019 and was unsealed upon the defendant’s extradition.
According to the indictment, Clarke and his co-conspirators sought to unlawfully enrich themselves through a fraudulent lottery scheme targeting the elderly.
“Victims throughout the United States received mailings or phone calls in which they were falsely informed that they had won over one million US dollars in a lottery and needed to pay fees to claim their winnings,” according to the indictment.
It alleges that the victims were instructed on how, and to whom, to send their money, and that they were told to send their money through wire transfers, the US Postal Service and private commercial mail carriers to certain individuals, including Clarke’s cousin, Claude Anthony Shaw.
The indictment further alleges that Clarke and Shaw discussed plans to receive victims’ money over the phone and via text messages, and that, at Clarke’s direction, Shaw received money from victims and sent the funds to Clarke in Jamaica.
The victims never received any lottery winnings, the indictment states and the DOJ said Shaw pleaded guilty in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in February 2017 for his role in the scheme and was sentenced to 36 months in prison.
“The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch is committed to pursuing criminals who defraud US consumers from abroad and to vigorously prosecuting them in federal court after they are apprehended,” said Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
“In this case, the defendant targeted and exploited elderly Americans, and I thank the government of Jamaica for extraditing him to the United States to face charges,” he added.
Inspector in Charge Joseph Cronin of the US Postal Inspection Service Miami Division said, “the US Postal Inspection Service stands ready to stop overseas criminals from illegally enriching themselves by using the mail to defraud consumers in the United States.
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