US warns lotto scammers they will be brought to justice
Following the recent conviction and 20-year sentence of Jamaican lotto scammer Sanjay Williams, a US official warned yesterday that those who prey upon Americans will be caught, prosecuted and penalized with the strictest prison sentences.
Chris Ashe, the deputy office director of Caribbean Affairs in the US State Department, made the decloration during a conference call with Jamaican journalists and other US officials, saying that scammers will be hunted down wherever they are and face the full extent of the law.
“We have an entire team in North Dakota committed to bringing people to justice, and… when we find them — when we can identify them and bring them to justice — if they are found guilty they will definitely be subjected to the type of sentences as Mr Williams [and] depending on their level of culpability, even greater sentences in some cases,” Ashe said.
A federal judge in Bismarck, North Dakota, sentenced 26-year-old Williams to 20 years in prison on November 24 for his role in a lottery scam that authorities say cost victims across the United States millions of dollars.
The court also made an order of forfeiture for US$5.2 million against Williams, and ordered that he make restitution of US$5.6 million.
When we can identify assets, yes, we will go after them,” Assistant US Attorney Clare Hochhalter, the lead prosecutor in the Williams case, said yesterday in response to a question from the Jamaica Observer.
He said the assets will be used primarily to pay restitution to victims.
Williams, who hails from Montego Bay, in St James, was convicted in May of 35 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.
Investigators describe Williams and Lavrick Willocks as leaders of two separate scamming operations based in Jamaica. The US is seeking Willocks’ extradition for prosecution.
He said that the case is still being investigated and that charges are expected to be brought against a number of others involved in the scamming of Americans.
The Associated Press
(AP) news service said in a report on Williams’ sentencing that, in recent years, estimates by US officials put the yearly take by Jamaican fraudsters at US$300 million. At the same time, the
AP reported, some American authorities suspected the total was far higher. It reported that in 2012, C Steven Baker, a Chicago-based director with the US Federal Trade Commission, said that Jamaica’s scammers could be bilking Americans out of US$1 billion a year.