Jamaican fraudster sentenced in North Texas to 6 ½ years in federal prison for running lottery/sweepstakes scam
Defendant also must pay more than $500,000 in restitution
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Jamaican man residing in the United States was sentenced Monday to 6½ years in federal prison and ordered to pay $505,403 in restitution to the victims.
This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated this case.
Andre Hugh Saunders, 35, aka David Turner, has been in custody since his arrest in October 2015 in New York on a criminal complaint. He resided in and/or operated the scam out of Jamaica, Florida and New York. Saunders is a citizen of Jamaica and a U.S. permanent resident.
U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor awarded this 78-month sentence and followed Saunders’ guilty plea in November 2015 to an indictment charging one count of mail fraud stemming from a lottery/sweepstakes scheme targeting elderly victims.
According to plea documents filed in the case, from about November 2012 to July 2015, Saunders defrauded a Fort Worth, Texas, resident by advising him he had won a multi-million-dollar prize in the “Las Vegas, Sidney, Australian Lottery and Sweepstakes,” but that he must pay various administrative fees and taxes prior to collecting the sweepstakes winnings. This Fort Worth resident believed he had won a sweepstakes and began sending money as Saunders directed.
As a result of the fraudulent lottery/sweepstakes scheme, Saunders obtained about $505,000 from elderly victims, including more than $300,000 from the Fort Worth victim.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Nichols, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.
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