Another Jamaican has been arrested in Florida for running a lottery scam operation that defrauded elderly victims from New York, Arizona and Texas out of over US$500,000.
Linton Roberts, 50, was arrested in Lauderhill on Monday. He faces 21 charges, including money laundering, grand theft, larceny, exploitation of the elderly and fraud. His bond has been set at US$1.1 million, but he remains at the Joseph V Conte Facility in Pompano Beach.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, the scams that took place from April 2018 through as recently as last week, were largely carried out the same way. Elderly victims in New York, Massachusetts, California and elsewhere received calls from someone using different names and told them they were lottery winners.
In order to claim their winnings, the victims were told they needed to mail cashier’s checks to a Lauderhill address, later determined to be Roberts’. Roberts scammed victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of four years.
Upon realizing they were scammed, his victims — which ranged between 75 to 83 years old — contacted the Lauderhill Police Department.
According to an affidavit, Roberts also received over $12,930 after fraudulently applying for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, despite never owning a business.
Roberts is just one of several Jamaicans to be arrested for lottery scamming and fraud in Florida since the start of the year.
Earlier this week, a South Florida grand…
