A man from Jamaica has been deported over to the US to serve a 36-month sentence for defrauding elderly victims in a lottery scam.
An investigation conducted by Homeland Security and the United States Postal Inspection Service unveiled a cash award and lottery scam running in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina between 2015-2022.
Jamaican national Alando Gentles, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was part of the criminal group which used wire fraud to send the illegally gained proceeds over to Jamaica, where Gentles was revealed to have been making ATM withdrawals from an account used to store the funds.
The fraudsters had been contacting elderly people either by phone or mail, informing them that they had won what proved to be non-existent sweepstake prizes.
Victims were then told that should they like to collect their prizes, they must first pay all the applicable taxes and upfront fees, which the District of South Carolina said is a standard fraud procedure.
A total of 115 people had fallen victim to the scam, using either prepaid cards, USPS money services, bank wires, cash mails or written checks to pay the fraudsters.
While no mention was made of other people being jailed, Gentles was brought over from Jamaica to face a 36-month sentence in a federal prison, handed by Chief US District Judge Sherri A. Lydon, with an additional court order to pay $349,433 to the impacted victims.
South Carolina has some of the strictest anti-gambling rules in the US, and while sweepstakes are legal, they are subjected to rigorous oversight.
