PENNSYLVANIA, USA – Forty-year-old Damone D Oakley of the Point District, St James made his first court appearance since being extradited to the United States to answer to charges relating to his participation in a fraudulent sweepstakes scheme that targeted elderly victims.

According to a release, the development was announced by the US Department of Justice and US Postal Inspection Service on Tuesday.

Oakley, who was charged with a 16-count indictment of mail and wire fraud, made his appearance in a federal court in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

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According to the indictment, Oakley sought to unlawfully enrich himself through a fraudulent sweepstakes scheme targeting the elderly. Victims throughout the United States received mailings, text messages or phone calls, in which they were falsely told that they had won millions of dollars and luxury vehicles in a sweepstakes, but first needed to pay taxes and fees in order to claim their winnings. The indictment alleges that Oakley, using a variety of names, including “Officer Alex Logan” and “Officer Stan Valentine,” instructed his victims on how to send their money (and to whom the funds should be sent), including through the use of wire transfers, direct bank deposits, the US Postal Service and private commercial mail carriers.

Victims were directed to send money directly to Oakley as well as to individuals in the United States and elsewhere who served as intermediaries and transmitted the money to Oakley. In addition to sending cash or wire transfers, the indictment alleges that victims were directed to purchase electronics, jewellery and clothing, and to then have the purchased items shipped to mail forwarding services in Florida. The victims never received any “winnings.”

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney, General Brian M Boynton, head of the US Justice Department’s Civil Division, said he was “encouraged by the streamlined extradition process that led to the defendant’s appearance in federal court to face these charges.”

“This is the first extradition requested by the United States in accordance with the evidentiary rules contained in Jamaica’s recently revised Extradition Act,” he said. “The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch is committed to pursuing criminals who defraud vulnerable US consumers – both domestically and abroad – and to prosecuting them to the full extent of the law.”

Still, law enforcement in the US has sought to make it clear that “An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

Oakley’s case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel, Linda I Marks of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, Consumer Protection Branch, along with Assistant US Attorney, Christian Haugsby, for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The US Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Lottery Scam Task Force and the Jamaica Fugitive Apprehension Team provided critical assistance.