Two Milton, Ont. men face charges after police say they headed up an international lottery scheme that bilked senior citizens out of more than $400,000 and laundered the money in the U.S.
Toronto police’s financial crime unit led a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement investigation with U.S. Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service that began after U.S. citizens received unsolicited mail that contained lottery letters and cheques.
Police said the recipients of the mail then called supposed “claims agents” listed in the letter and were told to cash the cheques and give the money back to the agents in order to claim their lottery winnings.
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The lottery prizes were never delivered and police said the alleged victims later learned the cheques they received were fake and the money was laundered by suspects in the U.S. and Canada.
Investigators said the Canadian suspects directed the operations of the lottery scam throughout the two countries and five people were arrested on Dec. 17, 2015.
On Tuesday, police arrested Harry Cole, 46, and Elo Cole, 39, in connection with the “criminal enterprise.”
They were each charged with possession of the proceeds of crime, laundering the proceeds of crime, fraud over $5,000 and participating in/contributing to a criminal organization. They appeared in a Toronto court on Wednesday.