NORTH CAROLINA
A federal judge sentenced a California woman to 10 years and 10 months in prison for her role in a half-million dollar Costa Rica-based “sweepstakes fraud” scheme that victimized hundreds of U.S. residents, officials said.
Patricia Diane Clark, 57, of Sacramento, admitted that, along with her co-conspirators, she was responsible for approximately $640,000 in losses to more than a hundred U.S. citizens.
Clark was sentenced for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. She was also ordered to pay $642,032 in restitution and to forfeit the same amount jointly and severally with her co-defendants, officials said.
In connection with her guilty plea, Clark admitted that, from approximately 2007 through February 2013, her co-conspirators called U.S. residents from Costa Rican call centers, falsely informing them that they had won a substantial cash prize in a “sweepstakes.”
The victims, many of whom were elderly, were told that in order to receive the prize, they had to send money for a purported “refundable insurance fee.”
Clark admitted that she picked up money from the victims and sent it to her co-conspirators in Costa Rica. Clark also admitted that she managed others who picked up money from the victims in the United States and that she kept a portion of the victims’ payments, according to officials.
Clark also admitted that, once the victims sent money, her co-conspirators contacted the individuals again and falsely informed them that the prize amount had increased, either because of a clerical error or because another prize winner was disqualified.
Officials said the victims then had to send additional money to pay for new purported fees to receive the now larger sweepstakes prize. The attempts to collect additional money from the victims continued until an individual either ran out of money or discovered the fraudulent nature of the scheme, according to officials.