Scammer convicted in US

BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP):

A 25-year-old Jamaican man was convicted yesterday for his role in a Jamaican lottery scam that authorities say cost victims around the country millions of dollars.

Sanjay Williams, of Montego Bay, St James, was found guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering and faces up to 40 years in prison.

Investigators described Williams primarily as a "lead broker", who bought and sold "sucker lists" of potential victims. He was the only one of 32 defendants to opt for trial; about a dozen defendants are awaiting extradition from Jamaica.

Prosecutors said Williams, who was arrested in North Carolina, was the first person from Jamaica convicted of selling the lead lists used in the scam.

"I hope it makes a difference," Assistant US Attorney Clare Hochhalter said. "I hope it sends a message to the people who continue doing this crime."

Defence attorney Charlie Stock said he hadn't decided on whether there would be an appeal. "I need to speak with Mr Williams to see where he wants to go," he said.

Jurors in the US District Court in Bismarck had been deliberating since Tuesday afternoon before reaching a verdict.

Prosecutors said the case came to light four years ago, when Edna Schmeets, 86, of Harvey, North Dakota, received a call from a man who told her she had won US$19 million and a new car, and needed only to pay taxes and fees. The process dragged on until the widow's savings were wiped out, a sum of about US$300,000.

Hochhalter told jurors that the subsequent investigation identified more than 70 people - mostly older and vulnerable citizens - who were scammed out of more than US$5.2 million. About a dozen victims testified during the trial by video and in person.

WIDE RANGE OF VICTIMS

The victims "came from all walks of life and from across the country" and ranged from a woman who owned three successful businesses to a World War II fighter pilot, Hochhalter said.

Stock said in his closing arguments that the case was about evidence, not sympathy.

Cpl Kevin Watson, a member of a Jamaican agency comparable to the FBI, testified during Williams' trial.

"We have been fighting this monster called lottery scam for three years and this is a significant step for both the Jamaican and US governments," said Watson, who helped found a lottery scam task force in late 2012.

Watson estimated lottery scamming is a US$30 million annual industry in Jamaica, and said a law passed in Jamaica in 2013 has led to some 700 arrests and a 90 per cent conviction rate of scammers.

In recent years, estimates by US officials put the yearly take by the Jamaican fraudsters at US$300 million, but some American authorities suspected the total was far higher. In 2012, C. Steven Baker, a Chicago-based director with the US Federal Trade Commission, told The Associated Press that Jamaica's scammers could be bilking Americans out of US$1 billion a year.

US District Judge Daniel Hovland did not set a sentencing date or the amount of restitution Williams must pay. Hovland told Williams that he would receive a "significantly lesser sentence" if he cooperated with federal investigators about other scammers.