J’can gets 15 months in US prison for US$120K lottery scam
MASSACHUSETTS, United States (AP) — A Jamaican man is headed to prison for running a false lottery scheme that scammed a woman out of more than US$120,000.
The US Attorney’s office says 34-year-old Kemal Barnes, who lives in Malden, Massachusetts, was sentenced Monday in Boston federal court to 15 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of US$118,367.
Barnes will be subject to deportation upon completion of his sentence. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud in April.
The office says Barnes contacted an elderly woman in Texas in 2015 and convinced her that she’d won a lottery prize worth millions of dollars. He told her that in order to claim her prize, she had to send cash payments for lottery taxes and fees.
Prosecutors say the victim’s son contacted law enforcement. Authorities executed a search warrant at Barnes’ home that found computers and a cellphone with a voiceover application.
