WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A Jamaican man accused of cheating elderly Americans in a lottery scheme was extradited to the United States yesterday, the first such action by Jamaica in a crackdown on global fraud, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Damion Barrett, 28, was brought to Florida, where he faced an indictment that accused him of telling Americans they had won a lottery, and inducing them to send him and his partners thousands of dollars to cover fees to get their purported winnings, the agency said.
One of his alleged partners was sentenced last year to 60 months in prison.
Justice officials said Barrett was the first citizen Jamaica had extradited for such a scheme, many of which have been found to be run from that country.
“The Department of Justice will find and prosecute those responsible for fraud against American consumers, no matter where the perpetrator resides,” Joyce Branda, head of the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement.
The defendants allegedly sent communications as a sweepstakes company, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or Federal Reserve, according to court documents.
