{"id":19942,"date":"2016-01-30T16:22:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T00:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=19942"},"modified":"2016-01-30T16:22:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T00:22:59","slug":"19942-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=19942","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Con Man Sentenced to Prison for Scamming 294 Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Courtroom\"<\/strong>A federal judge sentenced a\u00a0Canadian man to nearly four years in prison for targeting American victims in several schemes, including a fake lottery scam, \u00a0\u201csecret shopper\u201d pitch letters, and bogus credit repair services.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge George H. Wu<\/strong> on Friday sentenced \u00a0Peter Omagbemi<\/strong>, 45, of Montreal to three years and 11 months and\u00a0ordered Omagbemi to pay just over $1 million in restitution, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe border between the United States and Canada did not protect Mr. Omagbemi from prosecution,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker.<\/strong> \u201cMy office will pursue foreign nationals who seek to profit by defrauding people in the United States. In this case, Mr. Omagbemi\u2019s fraud was particularly harmful as it caused the arrest of one of his victims.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Omagbemi operated a MoneyGram outlet in Montreal and engaged in a mass marketing fraud scheme by targeting victims \u2013 primarily in the U.S. \u2013 and fraudulently claiming that the victims had won a lottery or sweepstakes. In some cases, Omagbemi claimed the victim had been offered a job as a mystery shopper, or that he could repair the victim\u2019s credit.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the lottery scheme, Omagbemi claimed that the victim had won a lottery or sweepstakes. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, in order to claim the funds, the victim needed to send money through MoneyGram to pay for taxes, fees and other expenses, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the mystery shopper scheme, Omagbemi falsely told the victim that they had been selected as a mystery shopper, which he followed up with by sending the victim a counterfeit check to deposit and directing them to send some of the money to MoneyGram.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, in the credit repair scheme, the defendant would claim that he could repair the victim\u2019s credit in exchange for a fee. <\/span><\/p>\n

All of these claims were false.<\/span><\/p>\n

Omagbemi\u2019s schemes caused 294 victims to send him money. After the victims deposited the counterfeit checks and sent money to Omagbemi, the banks would reverse payment and would debit the amount against the victim\u2019s own bank funds, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some victims fell behind on their bills, and, in one case, a victim was arrested for passing a fraudulent check.<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBI, U.S. Postal Service along with the Royal Canadian Police investigated this case, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES A federal judge sentenced a\u00a0Canadian man to nearly four years in prison for targeting American victims in several schemes, including a fake lottery scam, \u00a0\u201csecret shopper\u201d pitch letters, and bogus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[2155,1521,2156,2157],"class_list":["post-19942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-canadian-con-man","tag-credit-repair","tag-lottery-scams","tag-royal-canadian-police"],"yoast_head":"\nCanadian Con Man Sentenced to Prison for Scamming 294 Victims<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES A federal judge sentenced a\u00a0Canadian man to nearly four years in prison for targeting American victims in several schemes, including 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