A Jamaican man was sentenced in a Michigan courtroom Friday on a federal charge of conspiracy to conduct mail and wire fraud in connection with a countrywide operation that fraudulently collected more than $3 million from 28 victims, according to the Department of Justice.
Court documents show that Sefton Olivair Stewart, 41, was sentenced to six years in federal prison. According to federal officials, he will be expelled from the United States after serving his sentence.
According to the federal government, the scheme took place between October 2019 and September 2024. Stewart and others falsely claimed to have won huge sums in a multistate lottery. Victims were informed they had to pay taxes and fees on their victories before receiving their awards, according to Stewart’s plea deal filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. “None of these representations were true.”
According to federal officials, those behind the scheme utilized forged bank and government documents to persuade victims that their promises were authentic. According to the plea deal, one of the victims was an older man from western Michigan.
Stewart pled guilty to the offense in July, according to court records. Fraudsters who exploit victims with false promises of life-changing awards will be held accountable, regardless of where they operate,” Homeland Security Investigations Detroit Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Pierczynski said in a prepared statement.
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