A Six-Year Sweepstakes Scheme Ends in a 66-Month Sentence
On July 7, a federal judge in Central Islip sentenced Adrian Lawrence, extradited from Jamaica and known to his co-conspirators as "Mastermind," to 66 months in prison for running a sweepstakes fraud scheme aimed at elderly Americans for more than six years. Lawrence and his network told victims by phone and email that they had won a prize sponsored by Publishers Clearing House, then directed them to wire money, mail checks, or send cash to cover supposed taxes and fees before their winnings could be released. At least 50 victims, whose average age was 82, sent Lawrence and his co-conspirators more than $5.6 million between October 2013 and April 2020; the court ordered $5.4 million in restitution.
What stands out in this case is less the mechanism than the duration. Sweepstakes fraud is one of the oldest scripts in the field, but six and a half years is long enough that most of the fraud-detection tools built since 2013 — bank transaction flags, carrier-level scam-call blocking, public awareness campaigns — existed and improved while the scheme was still actively taking money. It survived that whole stretch by working through several payment channels rather than depending on any one: wire transfers, mailed checks, and cash all appear in the same case file, meaning no single institution's controls could have caught all of it.
Lawrence pleaded guilty back in December 2023; this month's sentencing closes out a prosecution that had already been working through the courts for years. For financial planners and bank staff, the useful detail here is narrower than the case itself: a client mentioning an unexpected sweepstakes win, paired with any request to pay a fee before collecting it, describes a scheme old enough to predate most of the tools built to catch it.
Sources
Jamaican National Sentenced to 66 Months in Prison for Multi-Million Dollar Sweepstakes Fraud Scheme Targeting the Elderly — U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, July 7, 2026