Jamaican man gets 3 years for defrauding Vancouver woman of $600,000
May 15-A Jamaican man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to three years in prison for wire fraud for his lottery scheme that cost a 73-year-old Vancouver woman more than $600,000.
Roshard Andrew Carty, 34, pleaded guilty in the case in February. After a federal grand jury indicted Carty in November 2024, he was arrested Aug. 21 in Jamaica and then extradited to the United States for arraignment in October.
"This defendant was relentless in defrauding a vulnerable victim," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a news release. "At every turn when she tried to end the contact, he persisted playing on her isolation and her fear of losing the money she had already lost. He stole the money she was counting on to survive in retirement, so that he could buy luxuries and live large in Jamaica. It is despicable conduct deserving of this punishment."
According to the news release, Carty first contacted the woman in 2020. He posed as an employee of Publisher's Clearing House and claimed the woman won $22 million and a car in the lottery. However, he told her she needed to pay taxes and fees to access her winnings. He then convinced the woman the FBI was recording the call and told her she was not to tell anyone about her win.
Between August 2020 and February 2024, he convinced the woman to send more than $600,000 to various money couriers throughout the United States, who sent the money to Carty in Jamaica.
Carty's cash requests started small and grew over time. He instructed the woman to remove small amounts of cash from her accounts and send them to U.S. locations via FedEx. Carty then told the woman the money was lost or stolen and demanded more. He convinced her to borrow against her home so she could send more money and eventually to sell her home to cover additional "costs and fees" to claim her prize, according to the news release.
Carty called and texted the woman thousands of times using various phone numbers and programs. When the woman tried to cut contact, Carty escalated his tactics by sending tow trucks and pizza deliveries to the woman's home and requesting a welfare check from her landlord to reestablish communication, the news release states.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said the Vancouver woman was not the only victim discovered by law enforcement. Investigators said they fear Carty may return to fraud after his prison term.
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