ARIZONA, USA – A Jamaican man is to serve more than 13 years in a United States prison for being one of the leaders of an international fraud scam which swindled cash from thousands of elderly Americans.

David Odean McIntosh, 29, was on Tuesday sentenced by United States District Judge, Raner C Collins, to 160 months in prison.

McIntosh was previously found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

As part of his sentence, the court ordered McIntosh to pay approximately US$1.8 million in restitution.

According to a release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona on Friday, between 2013 and 2018, McIntosh was “one of the leaders of an international fraud ring that targeted thousands of elderly victims across the United States”.

Investigations revealed that Jamaican-based scammers, and others, called elderly victims, claiming the victims had won a lottery or other prize.

To receive their winnings, the victims were told that they must first pay money for taxes and fees.

The fraudsters also provided some victims with phoney letters claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that threatened to seize their assets if they failed to pay the monies requested.

The US Attorney’s Office informed that McIntosh’s role in this scam was to “distribute lead lists”, which contained the names and personal information of thousands of primarily elderly individuals for the scammers to contact and lure into the scheme.

Additionally, McIntosh also conspired to launder portions of the fraudulent proFollowing a probe by several agencies, including the IRS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, McIntosh was arrested and later charged.