Investing.com -- A man who was the first Jamaican ever to be extradited to the United States earlier this year in connection with an international lottery scheme, pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. District Court to one count of wire fraud.
Damion Barrett, 28, was extradited to South Florida in February, stemming from his role in a scheme where he duped elderly citizens into believing they had earned lottery or other cash prizes, before convincing them to send money to Jamaica to collect their earnings. The victims allegedly were instructed to send money to a middleman in Broward County, Fla., who forwarded the amounts to Jamaica. None of the victims received any winnings.
In February, 2014, Oneike Barnett, Barrett's co-defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Two months later, Barnett was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $94,000 in restitution.
“The protection of the most vulnerable members of our society, including the elderly, is one of the top priorities of the Department of Justice and of our office, and this case again shows that an international border is no defense for those who defraud our senior citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida in a statement. “Regardless of where the criminals may be located, we will work together with our domestic and international law enforcement partners to bring them to the United States to hold them accountable for their crimes. In particular, we thank the Jamaican authorities for their cooperation and assistance in our continuing efforts to stamp out these long-running lottery schemes that target older Americans.”
Upon his guilty plea, Barrett admitted that the scheme lasted from 2008 through 2012 and that he sent the victims information "discussing their purported lottery winnings, which falsely claimed to be from a genuine sweepstakes company." The defendants, according to the Department of Justice, also falsely claimed that the winnings came partly from some federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve.
Barrett faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison and mandatory restitution when he is sentenced on June 19.