Fort Pierce man one of hundreds charged in largest ever elder fraud sweep by Justice Department

A Fort Pierce man was one of hundreds charged in what the Justice Department described Friday as the largest elder fraud sweep in the agency's history.

More than 1 million Americans, most of them elderly, were victimized, with losses exceeding $500 million. As part of the DOJ operation, 250 defendants worldwide were charged in the last year, 200 of them criminally.

"Today’s actions send a clear message: we will hold perpetrators of elder fraud schemes accountable wherever they are," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a news release. "Today is only the beginning."

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In the Southern District of Florida, 20 people were charged with involvement with various fraud schemes totaling more than $103 million.

"Unfortunately, elderly citizens are sometimes vulnerable to financial exploitation by unscrupulous fraudsters bent on making ill-gotten gains," said Robert F. Lasky, FBI Miami's special agent in charge.

The Fort Pierce man, Marvin Damian Coote, 36, was indicted in May on conspiracy, fraud, gun and drug charges in relation to a fraudulent lottery scheme with ties to Jamaica.

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According to court documents, Coote and others would telephone people to notify them that they had won the lottery, but had to send payment to secure their prize. Victims paid up to several thousand dollars in order to collect their "winnings."

Targets were typically older than 70. Coote and his organization kept the victims’ money without paying any lottery and sweepstakes winnings, according to a news release.

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Coote pleaded guilty to some of the charges and was sentenced in December to 41 months in prison. He was ordered to pay $225,995 in restitution.

These cases also were prosecuted in Florida at part of the operation: