By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
and
wire services
The
U.S. Department of Justice reports
that a U.S. citizen surnamed
Sniffen, 58 years old, who resided
in Costa Rica plead guilty on
April 5, for his role in a
“sweepstakes fraud” scheme that
defrauded hundreds of U.S.
residents, many of them elderly.
Before
U.S. Magistrate Judge David C.
Keesler of the Western District of
North Carolina Sniffen plead
guilty to all 31 counts of an
indictment charging one count of
conspiracy to commit mail and wire
fraud, two counts of mail fraud,
13 counts of wire fraud, one count
of conspiracy to commit
international money laundering and
14 counts of international money
laundering.
Sniffen
was indicted in September 2015 and
was extradited from Costa Rica in
July 2017.
As
part of his guilty plea, Sniffen
admitted that from approximately
September 2010 through May 2014,
he worked for a call center in
Costa Rica that placed telephone
calls to U.S. victims, falsely
informing those victims that they
had won a substantial cash prize
in a “sweepstakes.”
The
victims, many of whom were
elderly, were told that in order
to receive the prize, they had to
pay for a purported “refundable
insurance fee,” Sniffen admitted.
Sniffen
knew that certain factual
assertions that he and his
co-conspirators made in their
pitches to victims were false, he
admitted.
He
also admitted that he and his
co-conspirators kept the victims’
funds, never provided any prizes
to victims, and used the victims’
funds to continue operating the
call center for his and his
co-conspirators’ benefit.
Once
Sniffen and his co-conspirators
received the victims’ money, they
allegedly contacted the victims
again to tell them that they had
to send additional money to pay
for new purported fees, duties and
insurance to receive the now
larger sweepstakes prize.
Sniffen
and his co-conspirators allegedly
continued their attempts to
collect additional money from
victims until those victims either
ran out of money or discovered the
fraudulent nature of the scheme.
USPIS,
FBI and IRS-CI agents from
Charlotte and Toledo, Ohio
investigated the case, with
support from the Federal Trade
Commission and U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland
Security Investigations.
Trial
Attorneys William Bowne and
Jennifer Farer of the Criminal
Division’s Fraud Section are
prosecuting the case.
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Assistant
Attorney General
Brian A. Benczkowski
of the Justice
Department’s
Criminal Division,
U.S. Attorney R.
Andrew Murray Rose
of the Western
District of North
Carolina, Special
Agent in Charge John
Strong of the FBI’s
Charlotte Field
Office, Inspector in
Charge David
McGinnis of the U.S.
Postal Inspection
(USPIS) Service
Charlotte Division
and Special Agent in
Charge Matthew D.
Line of the Internal
Revenue
Service-Criminal
Investigation
(IRS-CI) Charlotte
Field Office made
the announcement.
As A.M. Costa Rica
reported on June
2017, Sniffen was
a member of a
group of U.S.
citizens arrested
on the run from
international
justice, for
allegedly being a
member of an
international
crime group
specializing in
scamming senior
U.S. citizens
through a call
center located in
Costa Rica.
According to
police records, he
was facing charges
of fraud, illegal
association and
money laundering,
which are
investigated under
the judicial file
17-000029-0016-PE.
The
international
alert was issued
after U.S.
authorities and
the Public
Ministry
collaborated in
the arrest of five
U.S. citizens, who
were investigated
in the state of
North Carolina for
allegedly
committing million
dollar scams
against retirees.
It is believed
that the group
acted between 2010
and May 2014,
presenting
themselves as
agents of the
Federal Trade
Commission and
other government
agencies of the
United States of
America.
Apparently, the
defendants called
their victims,
most of them over
55, and assured
them that they had
been winners of
the lottery
jackpot. They were
instructed that,
in order to claim
the prize, they
had to pay fees,
taxes and
insurance
policies.
Sometime later,
the group would
call their victims
again, and explain
the prize was
actually bigger so
they had to make
new deposits to
Costa Rica.
Using this
method, the group
is accused of
cheating at least
a thousand people
in the United
States, making
profits of almost
$9 million
More information
on this case can
be reached at
Justice Department
site on the
following link:
justice.gov
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Have
you heard of any case
of a lottery
scam? We would like to
know your thoughts on
this story. Send your
comments to: news@amcostarica.com
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