Lottery Scam Draws 150-Month Prison Sentence

A federal judge in New York has sentenced Matthew Getto to 150 months in prison for his role in a Israel-based telemarketing scam that swindled elderly Americans out of $8 million. Getto, 28, was one of 12 Israelis charged in the scheme.

“Matthew Getto is a con artist who used every trick in the book to swindle elderly victims in the United States out of their hard-earned savings. Today’s sentence sends a clear message that anyone who preys on the citizens of the United States, whether at home or abroad, will not get away with it,” said Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

According to indictments previously filed in the case, Getto and his co-conspirators ran a fraudulent “lottery prize” scheme that targeted victims, mostly elderly, in the United States from approximately 2007 through 2009. The defendants identified potential victims by purchasing the names and contact information of U.S. residents who subscribed to sweepstakes lotteries.

Operating out of telemarketing boiler rooms in Israel, so-called “qualifiers” would call the victims and falsely tell them they had won a substantial cash prize. If the victim had sufficient assets, they would be transferred to a co-conspirator who purported to be an attorney in the U.S., and who told the victims that to obtain the prize, they had to pay thousands of dollars in fees and taxes.

Victims who complied were typically contacted again and induced to send additional funds, amounting to tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. In reality, there was no lottery prize and the victims were ultimately bilked out of millions of dollars, collectively. The defendants used the names of various sham law firms that they told the victims were located in New York. The defendants further used various aliases and call forwarding telephone numbers to mask the fact that they were actually located in Israel.

Getto was a part-owner and senior manager of one of the boiler rooms. He falsely claimed to victims that he was a lawyer in New York or a director of claims at a sweepstakes company, among other bogus identities, in order to gain the victims’ trust before instructing them to send money by wire transfer or by commercial mail to co-conspirators in Israel.

In addition to his prison term, Getto was ordered to forfeit $10 million.

Three of the other defendants in the case previously entered guilty please. Three more are awaiting trial and five are in Israel awaiting extradition.