Man’s lottery scam cheated people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, feds say
Older Americans scammed into believing they won a massive lottery prize sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay fees and taxes on the winnings that didn’t exist, federal prosecutors said.
Antony Linton Stewart, 39, a Jamaican national, convinced at least 10 people they won a prize worth millions — and at other times, a new car — by lying to them over the phone, according to court documents filed in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After telling them they needed to pay taxes and fees to obtain their winnings, some people mailed packages with thousands of dollars in cash to Stewart’s “intermediaries,” according to a factual basis filed in support of a plea agreement.
Other victims wired the money to the intermediaries, who are accused of turning the money over to Stewart, prosecutors said.
Stewart, of St. James Parish, Jamaica, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with his lottery scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina announced in an Aug. 4 news release.
His guilty plea comes after his extradition from Jamaica, according to the release.
McClatchy News contacted Charlotte-based attorney S. Frederick Winiker, who represents Stewart, for comment Aug. 7 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
“Each year, millions of older Americans suffer heavy financial losses in the hands of scammers operating in the United States and abroad,” U.S. Attorney Dena J. King, for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a statement. “Today’s guilty plea underscores our efforts to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of elder fraud schemes no matter where they originate.”
How much money were Americans scammed out of?
Stewart is accused of leading his lottery scam targeting older individuals living in the U.S. from 2010 until at least August 2016, according to the factual basis, which says he used aliases including “James Carter” and “Robert Morgan” when calling victims.
Those conned into believing they won a lottery prize — and sending Stewart’s intermediaries money — were repeatedly barraged with additional calls from Stewart, who is accused of requesting more money, the factual basis says.
Ultimately, “there was no lottery and no winnings were paid; rather, Stewart and his co-conspirators fraudulently kept the victims’ money for their own benefit,” the factual basis says.
While prosecutors didn’t specify exactly how much money victims were scammed out of, the amount is more than $550,000 and less than $1,500,000, according to the factual basis.
Stewart’s scheme targeted at least one person described as a “vulnerable victim” and involved him pretending to act “on behalf of a government agency,” the factual basis says.
His guilty plea is the result of an investigation led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, according to prosecutors.
The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch and prosecutors for the Western District of North Carolina are prosecuting the case against him, the release said.
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