Man Behind Scam Targeting Elderly Pleads Guilty

An East Tennessee federal court has sentenced a man who scammed people out of lots of money. You might know someone who was a victim of this scam that involved a “sweepstakes prize”. According to federal prosecutors, 38 year old Nigel John-Ross Henry, a Jamaica citizen, ran a scam around a fake sweepstakes that targeted the elderly across the United States. Victims were contacted by telephone and told they had won a large sum of money even though they had never entered the sweepstakes lottery. In order to claim the prize money, victims were told they had to pay taxes on the winnings first. If the victim fell for the scam, a co-conspirator continued to call the victim for more “tax” money. The scam didn’t stop until the victim either had no more money, or figured out they were being scammed. Some victims lost their entire life savings.

Ultimately, all the stolen money was sent to Henry, who took his cut and wired the rest to unknown conspirators in Jamaica. On Wednesday in federal court in Knoxville, Henry plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to 75 months in prison followed by 5 years probation. Henry was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $331,569.39 along with two co-conspirators, Diedre Rochelle Weir and Diedria Roseanne Faulkner. They were both sentenced to 21 months in prison last month.