The U.S. Attorney”™s Office has uncovered a sweepstakes scam that stole $850,000 from at least 68 elderly victims across the country using companies and bank accounts in Westchester and elsewhere.
Victor Robinson Osorio was arrested Feb. 23 and accused of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, making false statements, and structuring bank transactions to evade reporting requirements.
Osorio, who”™s hometown was not disclosed, was denied bail and detained as a flight risk, according to the minutes of his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Andrew E. Krause in federal court, White Plains.
From 2016 to 2019, Osorio conspired to defraud elderly people in a telemarketing scheme, with “others known and unknown,” according to a criminal complaint unsealed last week.
Osorio was a signatory on a bank account for KR Trading in White Plains, allegedly owned by a co-conspirator. He allegedly controlled JP Capital Group Inc. and V&S Multiservices, New Jersey, and V&A Wholesale Mobile Corp., the Bronx. The businesses used numerous bank accounts and check cashing services, including banks in White Plains and Yonkers.
Conspirators allegedly called elderly people and said that they had won a sweepstakes or a lottery. But to receive their winnings, they had to pay taxes or fees. In no cases, did anyone receive prize money.
In 2018, for instance, an 86-year-old individual living in Massachusetts sent at least 10 bank checks totaling more than $480,000 to JP Capital for purported lottery winnings. Notes kept by the victim included a mention of KR Trading in White Plains and instructions to send payments to Hub Print & Copy in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where Osorio rented a mailbox.
Calls placed on phones allegedly used by Osorio displayed “Internal Revenue,” “UBS Capital Inc.” and “American Sweepstakes Publisher” on the caller IDs.
Investigators interviewed 15 elderly victims. Based on bank records, they believe at least 53 more people were defrauded.
Osorio also applied for nine loans last year under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. He received two loans, for V&S Multiservices and V&A Wholesale Mobile Corp., totaling $43,000.
Osorio allegedly lied on all nine loan applications, stating, for instance, that he had no criminal record. Englewood Cliffs police arrested him for forgery and theft in 2019, according to the criminal complaint, and he is currently enrolled in a three-year pretrial intervention program.
Osorio claimed that V&S had six employees and gross receipts of $280,000 before the Covid-19 pandemic, but did not submit required tax returns supporting those assertions.
The feds also claim that Osorio structured two deposits and three withdrawals from an unidentified Westchester bank in 2017, to thwart the bank”™s obligation to report everyone involved in transactions greater than $10,000.
Osorio”™s attorney, Samuel M. Braverman of Manhattan did not respond to a request for comment.
Deleassa Penland, a special agent for the U.S. Attorney”™s Office, prepared the criminal complaint. Assistant federal prosecutors Jeffrey Coffman and Steven J. Kochevar in White Plains and Janis Echenberg in Manhattan are handling the case for the government.
