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Jamaican Sentenced To Prison In US On Lottery Fraud Charges

MIAMI, Florida CMC — Damion Byran Barrett, the first Jamaica to be extradited to the United States to face lottery fraud charges, has been sentenced to almost four years in a US federal prison.

Barrett, 29, who pleaded guilty earlier this year of being part of a wire fraud conspiracy, was sentenced, last on Friday when he appeared in a south Florida court.

District Judge William Zloch sentenced Barrett to 46 months in prison and ordered him to pay US$94,456 dollars in restitution.

If he receives a job in prison that pays wages, he will have to turn over half of it toward the judgment.

He was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation after his release, and ordered to pay 10 percent of  his monthly earnings toward the judgment.

Barrett was part of a conspiracy that tricked seniors into believing that they had won millions of dollars and as a result, needed to pay advance fees to claim their winnings.

The sweepstakes scam that operated between late 2008 and 2012, used middlemen in South Florida to collect cash from victims all over the US.

The victims- mainly the elderly, were persuaded to send hundreds or thousands of dollars by mail, Western Union and MoneyGram, to Barrett’s associates in Broward County.

The middlemen took a percentage and sent the rest to Barrett in Jamaica.

According to prosecutors, this case could pave the way to holding foreigners accountable for preying on Americans.

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