PLEADED GUILTY TO “CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MAIL AND WIRE FRAUD”
In early August, a Jamaican national (39) pleaded guilty to one count of “conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud,” for targeting senior citizens with a sweepstakes or lottery scam. The victims were told that they had “won money and other prizes,” but they needed to send cash to satisfy fees and taxes on their winnings. Of course, after remitting payment none of the victims received what had been promised. (Victims were purportedly defrauded out of “hundreds of thousands.”)
In a written statement, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, noted that, “The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch is committed to investigating fraudulent schemes targeting elderly Americans, wherever those schemes are based …. Stewart is the latest example in the department’s ongoing efforts to root out and deter fraud from foreign locations that targets our most vulnerable consumers.”
Was that a clean sweep?
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