Three scammers sentenced in US

Three men have been sent to prison for their roles in a Jamaica-linked phony lottery scam that defrauded mostly older residents of several states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, out of millions of dollars in local currency in two separate cases.

Jason Wedderburn, 41, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Providence to three years behind bars, according to a statement from the US attorney’s office in Rhode Island.

Kayan Kitson, 38, was sentenced last month to two and a half years.

The victims were contacted by scammers and told they had won large cash lottery prizes but were required to pre-pay taxes or fees in order to collect the winnings, prosecutors said. One victim was cheated out of more than US$325,000, while others were bilked out of tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.

The victims’ money was deposited in bank accounts controlled by Wedderburn and Kitson, both citizens of Jamaica, prosecutors said. It was then transferred to other accounts controlled by members of the conspiracy in Jamaica and the US.

No winnings were ever paid out.

Wedderburn and Kitson pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

In Arizona, 44-year-old Joseph Andre Batts, 44, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, was sentenced on Tuesday to 70 months in prison.

Batts previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Batts participated in the scheme between 2013 and 2018, selling and distributing lead lists with personal information of thousands of primarily elderly individuals for scammers based in Jamaica to contact. He also distributed scamming scripts and template letters to teach others how to conduct the scheme. He then used others to help launder portions of the fraudulent proceeds.