Two North Carolina Residents Plead Guilty to Defrauding Elderly Through Offshore Sweepstakes Scheme
A North Carolina couple pleaded guilty for leading a Costa Rican sweepstakes
fraud scheme that defrauded hundreds of elderly Americans.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department's
Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Anne M. Tompkins of the Western District
of North Carolina made the announcement earlier this week.
Jessica Anne Brown, 39, of Greensboro, North Carolina, pleaded this week
in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her husband, Jason Dean
Brown, 41, formerly of Burleson, Texas, pleaded guilty on July 30, 2014.
The Browns pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud
and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the plea agreement, from November 2004 through March 2013,
Jessica and Jason Brown owned, operated and worked in sweepstakes call
centers located in Costa Rica. The Browns and their co-conspirators placed
telephone calls to U.S. residents, many of whom were elderly, and falsely
informed them that they had won a substantial cash prize in a sweepstakes.
The victims were told that in order to receive the prize, they had to
send money to Costa Rica for a purported refundable insurance fee. After
receiving the fee, the Browns and their co-conspirators contacted the
victims again, and falsely informed them that the prize amount had increased,
either because of a clerical error or because another prize winner was
disqualified, and therefore the victims had to send additional money to
pay for new purported fees, duties and insurance to receive the now larger
sweepstakes prize. The attempts to collect additional money from the victims
continued until a victim either ran out of money or discovered the fraudulent
nature of the scheme. To mask that they were calling from Costa Rica,
the Browns and their co-conspirators utilized VoIP phones that displayed
a (202) area code, giving victims the false impression that the calls
were coming from Washington, D.C. The Browns often falsely claimed that
they were calling on behalf of a U.S. federal agency to lure victims into
a false sense of security.
The defendants admitted that, along with their co-conspirators, they were
responsible for causing more than $840,000 in losses to hundreds of United
States citizens.
Jason and Jessica Browns were indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov.
15, 2012. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI,
the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal
Trade Commission and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland
Security Investigations Miami Office. This case is being prosecuted by
Senior Litigation Counsel Patrick Donley and Trial Attorney William Bowne
of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section.