A Jamaican scammer, convicted of bilking at least 80 Americans of more than US$5 million, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
Sanjay Williams was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S District Court Judge Daniel Hovland, who criticised Jamaica for what he declared was its lax prosecution of scammers and the comparatively light sentences given to them.
Judge Hovland pronounced the sentence after a two-hour hearing, which at times turned contentious as Williams argued with the judge, his attorney and a FBI special agent.
A federal jury convicted Williams, who is from Montego Bay, on 35 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering in May this year. His co-defendant, Lavrick Willocks, has also been charged, but has not yet been extradited to the United States.
For years Williams compiled lead lists which contained names, addresses and phone numbers of potential targets for scammers. They use the lists to peddle stories of big lottery winnings, in order to defraud their often elderly victims of thousands of dollars.
Two of those victims testified on Tuesday, one of them being 86-year-old Edna Schmeets, of Harvey, North Dakota, whose case eventually led federal investigators to Williams. In tears, Ms. Schmeets told Judge Hovland about the pain inflicted by being scammed, not only financially but emotionally.
Attorney Clare Hochhalter had a FBI agent recount a time when teams went to question a 72-year-old victim, only to learn that she had hanged herself. The attorney called the Jamaican the most stubborn defendant he has ever seen, questioning Williams' insistence on wearing a prison jump suit to trial and ignoring his attorney's advice. Judge Hovland also said Williams failed to show remorse for his actions.
Guilty plea
And another Jamaican has pleaded guilty in a US court to involvement in the lottery scam. Fifty-two year-old Davel Godfrey Young, of Montego Bay, St. James appeared in West Virginia federal court on Tuesday, charged with conspiring to defraud U.S citizens.
His plea to conspiracy to commit wire fraud was taken by a U.S Magistrate, with the defendant, who is jailed, to be sentenced at a later date. The Jamaican is accused of conspiring with 32 year old Zicko Peterkin, also of Montego Bay, and others, from September 2008 through July 2011. Peterkin is yet to be arrested.
The indictment alleges that the defendants obtained phone numbers and email addresses of numerous U.S. citizens. Peterkin, Young and the co-conspirators then made phone calls or sent e-mails to the targets. In the phone and email communications, the targets were falsely informed that they had won a multi-million dollar lottery prize and a new Mercedes Benz or BMW.
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