Federal investigators in Pittsburgh have charged four people they say were involved in a $4.5 million international lottery scam run out of Jamaica that targeted the elderly.
Yonel Burnett, 28, of Jamaica, is charged in a two-count indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Omar McKenzie, 34, of Lauderdale Lakes, Florida; Shemeca Shields, 29, of East Hartford, Connecticut; and Nicole Lamont, 30, of Eastham, Massachusetts, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Those four defendants join seven other alleged co-conspirators who were charged in December 2023.
As part of the scheme, the government said, the co-conspirators contacted people in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere and told them they had won millions of dollars in a lottery sweepstakes. However, they told the alleged victims they couldn’t collect their prize until they paid certain taxes and fees.
Those claims, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, were often reinforced with forged documents purporting to show the sweepstakes winnings and seals from government agencies.
According to an affidavit of probable cause in Burnett’s case, the defendants asked the victims to send cash, checks, money orders and gift cards.
“After being laundered through a network of bank accounts and money mules, victim money was withdrawn by members of the conspiracy living in Jamaica,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The members of the conspiracy, according to one indictment in the case, sought “victims who were over 75 years of age and had previously expressed an interest in sweepstakes or gambling.”
According to the affidavit in Burnett’s case, a victim identified as “L.D.,” reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center that she had lost $102,900 in a lottery scheme beginning in April 2021.
Then, in December 2022, L.D.’s accountant contacted the FBI to report that she had continued to be defrauded as part of the same scheme, with losses totaling approximately $400,000, the affidavit said.
As part of the elaborate scam, the affidavit said, L.D. sent money to another victim in the case, a 75-year-old man in Harrisburg, who ultimately lost $170,000.
In that instance, a person named Chopper told the man he had won $15 million through Publishers Clearing House.
“Some of these people were earlier victims of the lottery scam who had been unwittingly fooled into accepting and moving money on behalf of the members of the conspiracy,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Both victims kept track of the phone numbers, email addresses and names used to direct them to send funds, the affidavit said. They were able to share that information with the FBI.
Ultimately, agents used email messages, email address subscriber information matched with phone numbers and other records to identify the suspects.
Court documents do not break down where all of the victims are from.
However, in one instance, a couple that had been targeted before told the FBI they had lost approximately $400,000, including their home and vehicle, as part of lottery scams.
“They were expecting a jackpot of $35 million, two cars, and a briefcase of cash and gold from Publishers Clearing House and an additional $7.5 million and two cars from Mega Millions,” the affidavit said. “(The husband) stated they both had become addicted to scams.”
That couple had previously been interviewed by federal agents in 2019 about their involvement in scams.
Another victim in the case who has dementia, the affidavit said, lost approximately $240,000.