Jamaican lottery scammer to be sentenced in the USA

Authorities have released photos of ‎Damion Bryan Barrett, the Jamaican man who on Friday pleaded guilty in the US District Court in Fort Lauderdale to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Barrett was extradited from Jamaica in February based on charges that he committed fraud as part of an international lottery scheme against elderly victims in the United States.

He was the first Jamaican to be extradited to the United States based on charges that he committed fraud as part of an international lottery scheme.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division had this to say during Barrett appearance.

“Scammers in foreign countries preying on elderly victims in the United States are not immune from prosecution in the United States.”

Barrett was indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale on August 9, 2012, and was arrested in Jamaica in January based on the United States’ request that he be extradited.

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

Barrett faces a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. He is to be sentenced on June 19.