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FLORIDA, USA – A St James man on Friday pleaded guilty in a Miami federal court to participating in a bogus lottery scheme targeting elderly Americans.
Greg Warren Clarke, 29, of Montego Bay, was extradited to the United States after he waived his rights to an extradition hearing in Jamaica in May.
According to court documents, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 28.
The US Department of Justice, in a statement on Friday, said Clarke admitted that between September 2013 and August 2015, he worked with co-conspirators, including Claude Anthony Shaw, in a scheme to defraud several victims.
They were called and falsely told that they had won over a million dollars in a lottery and needed to pay fees or taxes to claim their winnings.
Victims were instructed to send their money through wire transfers or the mail to Shaw and other individuals.
Court documents said Clarke admitted that he and Shaw discussed plans to receive victims’ money over the phone and via text messages.
At Clarke’s direction, Shaw received money from victims through wire transfers and the mail, and then sent the funds he collected to Clarke in Jamaica through wire transfers.
Shaw previously pleaded guilty to mail fraud in the US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, and he was sentenced to 36 months in prison in June 2017.
An indictment was later filed against Clarke in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida and unsealed upon his extradition to the United States.
