Four NY residents convicted on multiple counts of fraud, 1 still missing.
The United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Caron Pitter, 47, Rohan Lyttle, 49, and Charlene Marshall, 44, permanent residents of the United States, originally from Jamaica, were found guilty on all charges against them following a two-week jury trial that concluded on Friday, November 17.
According to U.S. Attorneys, the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In addition to the conspiracy charges against all defendants, Pitter was charged with several counts of mail fraud, and Lyttle was charged with multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and interstate transportation of goods taken by fraud.
Officials say a fourth defendant, Rohan Lyttle, Jr., 26, was charged with some of the same offenses but remains a fugitive at large.
According to U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam, the defendants received funds from victims of a Jamaican lottery scam between 2017 and 2020. The trial evidence showed that an individual based in Jamaica posing as a representative of Publishers Clearing House (PCH) used “lead lists” containing names and personal information of elderly Americans to contact potential victims.
These individuals were allegedly contacted by phone and email and falsely told that they had won multimillion-dollar prizes through PCH but, needed to prepay taxes and other fees in order to claim their supposed prizes.
The victims were then directed to make payments in various ways, including by sending packages containing tens of thousands of U.S. dollars through the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, and Federal Express.
In addition to cash packages sent by mail, the victims transmitted funds through bank-to-bank wire transfers, Zelle, MoneyGram, and Western Union. They were also defrauded in other ways by giving the scammers access to credit cards and Amazon accounts, officials say.
Karam says the defendants also obtained debit cards for victims’ checking accounts and used those cards to make cash withdrawals at ATMs located in Jamaica. Several of the victims testified at trial, including a 78-year-old former resident of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a 70-year-old resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a 90-year-old resident of Walterboro, South Carolina.
Officials say collectively, these victims lost over $1.1 million in connection with this fraud scheme.
All of these victims testified that they were contacted by a representative of PCH and directed to send money to claim their respective prizes. All of them sent money to the defendants charged in this case, as well as other locations. The victim from Mechanicsburg, PA, and the victim from Philadelphia, PA collectively sent in excess of $200,000 in cash packages just to these defendants.
In some cases, victims were also directed to receive funds from third parties that they didn’t know and send those funds to other individuals that they were led to believe were also PCH representatives.
Evidence at trial also showed that the defendants operated an auto body shop in Queens,
New York known as Rocars Auto and an affiliated used car dealership based in Kingston,
Jamaica is known as Rolcam Company Limited.
The defendants used the proceeds of the lottery scam to purchase and repair salvaged vehicles from online vehicle auctions and ship those vehicles to Rolcam Company Limited for sale to customers in Jamaica.
The victim from Mechanicsburg, PA was also told that he had won a new Range Rover, in addition to his cash prize. He was directed to pay for and ship over $15,000 in parts from a
Land Rover car dealership to Rocars Auto in Queens, New York, under the false pretense that his
vehicle was in need of upgrades before it could be sent to him. The evidence at trial showed that
the defendants used these parts to repair a 2019 Land Rover that they purchased from a salvaged vehicle auction house. After repairing the vehicle, they shipped it from Rocars Auto to Rolcam Company Limited in Kingston, Jamaica, where it was sold to an unidentified buyer believed to be associated with the lottery scam.
