KINGSTON, Jamaica – A Jamaican man Oneike Mickhale Barnett was on Tuesday sentenced in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to serve 60 months in prison and five years supervised release, in connection with his role in a fraudulent lottery scheme based in Jamaica that targeted victims in the United States.

The United States Justice Department made the announcement Tuesday. Barnett was also ordered to pay US$94,456 in restitution.

According to a news release from the Department of Justice, Barnett’s prosecution is part of the department’s effort, working with federal and local law enforcement, “to combat fraudulent foreign lottery schemes preying on American citizens”.

According to the US Postal Inspection Service, Americans have lost tens of millions of dollars to fraudulent foreign lotteries and sweepstakes.

“This sentence sends a strong message that the American justice system will not stand by while criminals defraud unsuspecting Americans of their savings,” said Stuart F Delery, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will use all available means to hold these international criminals accountable.”

Barnett was arrested in Orlando in August 2013, following his indictment by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale on August 9, 2012, the release said. Barnett pleaded guilty on February 28, 2014, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

“As part of his guilty plea, Barnett acknowledged that had the case gone to trial, the United States government would have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that, from 2008 through 2012, he was a member of a conspiracy in which elderly victims were informed that they had won a large amount of money in a lottery and were induced to pay bogus fees in advance of receiving their purported lottery winnings,” the release said.

“In an effort to convince the victims that the lottery winnings were real, the conspirators sent them written and electronic communications discussing their purported lottery winnings which claimed to be from a genuine sweepstakes company, and from federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve,” the release added.

Also as part of his guilty plea, “Barnett acknowledged that the government would have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew the claims of lottery winnings were completely fabricated and he, along with his co-conspirators, kept the victims’ money for their own benefit without paying any lottery winnings”.