Brothers admit guilt in lottery scam

Jan 19, 2018, 3:06 pm (13 comments)

Scam Alert

Two siblings from Maryland who convinced multiple local residents to pay taxes and fees in advance of collecting on nonexistent lottery winnings entered guilty pleas Thursday in federal court.

Daniel Archer, 29, and Matthew Archer, 28, each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green to 20 counts of wire fraud.

The two men accepted plea agreements in which they will pay $728,442.18 in restitution.

Each count of wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but the plea agreements each man reached will recommend a lesser sentence.

Federal court records identified six people by their initials who gave money to the Archers and a third person who was not charged with a crime in the case.

Authorities said the siblings contacted victims through emails and phone calls to tell them they had won a large sum of money in a lottery.

"Victims were told in emails and telephone calls that they had to pay taxes, fees and other amounts up front before they could receive their lottery winnings," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Weiser said. "In reality, there were no lottery winnings."

The siblings came to the attention of local law enforcement in 2016 when a woman came to Kentucky State Police Post 3 in Bowling Green on June 2, 2016, to file a report that her stepmother was being victimized in a financial scheme.

According to Warren County circuit clerk records, the woman overheard her stepmother have a phone conversation with someone regarding arranging some type of payment.

When the stepmother got off the phone, she was asked about the conversation and told her stepdaughter a man named "Ralph Johnson" had phoned her and said she had won $2.5 million and a car through a Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes.

The stepmother had been making tax payments totaling more than $164,000 in anticipation of receiving the winnings, according to court records.

While the woman and her stepdaughter were meeting with KSP investigators, the man who claimed to be Ralph Johnson called the stepmother's phone and requested another payment of $100,000, and the stepmother agreed to obtain half the money for the payment immediately and the other half in a few weeks, arranging for Johnson to pick up the money at her residence at a later date.

On the appointed date, the man, later identified as Matthew Archer, arrived at the house and was arrested by KSP.

Daniel Archer was arrested in July 2016 after investigation determined he was involved in the scheme, court records show.

The siblings were charged initially with crimes in state court, and a federal grand jury returned wire fraud indictments against both men last year.

U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers will sentence both men April 24.

Bowling Green Daily News

Comments

Raven62's avatarRaven62

You have to wonder why they didn't learn that: Crime Doesn't Pay!

lejardin's avatarlejardin

These scammers went for big money, I was expecting to read $10,000 or so in fees but they went for the juglar, wow.  Cowards like these need prison time.  If they are paying restitution of over $700,000 how much did they scam people out of?  Thank goodness for the stepdaughter but the stepmother is still out a significant amount of money, I wonder if and how much she will get back? 

music*'s avatarmusic*

Daniel Archer and Mathew Archer have learned how the wheels of Justice grind slowly. 

Great law enforcement from all sides. Well done by the daughter.US Flag

noise-gate

Just give them 50 year’s each & be done with it. That would put them right up there with  other octogenarians. 

TheGameGrl's avatarTheGameGrl

Restitution rarely even gets paid back. These gents even scammed the justice system . These criminals won when all is a said and done.

grwurston's avatargrwurston

I wonder if they are going to pay the restitution before they are sentenced. If each count gets reduced to 5 years from 20, that's still 100 years. Now if it gets reduced to 2 or less they may eventually get out.

I guarantee you though, they are not the only ones pulling that scam either.

Lottomeister's avatarLottomeister

Quote: Originally posted by TheGameGrl on Jan 19, 2018

Restitution rarely even gets paid back. These gents even scammed the justice system . These criminals won when all is a said and done.

You're absolutely right. There will be no restitution unless they still have the money somewhere. Saw the pictures of these <snip>s. They could get up to 400 years in prison  if convicted.

This post has been automatically changed by the Lottery Post computer system to remove inappropriate content and/or spam.

One-Day

Theyll be out in a few years with good  behavior.

TheGameGrl's avatarTheGameGrl

Quote: Originally posted by grwurston on Jan 20, 2018

I wonder if they are going to pay the restitution before they are sentenced. If each count gets reduced to 5 years from 20, that's still 100 years. Now if it gets reduced to 2 or less they may eventually get out.

I guarantee you though, they are not the only ones pulling that scam either.

It's my limited understanding that the sentencing runs concurrent ..so each charge is not it's own term,but lumped together as 5 years total for the 5 charges...and the restitution will proceed after they are returned to society. What the govt should have done is ceased all property/bank account . Then given its liquidated value to the victims. But! We are talking about our govt. Not to smart on using common sense.

TheMeatman2005's avatarTheMeatman2005

Too bad the Gov't can't scam the scammers by offering no jail time if all of the money is returned and then lock them away anyway! 

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by TheGameGrl on Jan 20, 2018

It's my limited understanding that the sentencing runs concurrent ..so each charge is not it's own term,but lumped together as 5 years total for the 5 charges...and the restitution will proceed after they are returned to society. What the govt should have done is ceased all property/bank account . Then given its liquidated value to the victims. But! We are talking about our govt. Not to smart on using common sense.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to the best of my knowledge crimes that involve drug runnings do end up with the government possessing everything.  Proud of my KSP for their handling of this.

picktowin's avatarpicktowin

Why are people so stupid to even think they won that large amount without checking it out.

This has been going on for years and people still fall for it.

I agree these guys don't even deserve prison time.

That's to easy and let the working people pay for them in prison.

No they need  the electric chair.

Get rid of them off the earth period !!

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by picktowin on Jan 21, 2018

Why are people so stupid to even think they won that large amount without checking it out.

This has been going on for years and people still fall for it.

I agree these guys don't even deserve prison time.

That's to easy and let the working people pay for them in prison.

No they need  the electric chair.

Get rid of them off the earth period !!

They haven't used 'old sparky' in Eddyville, Kentucky for sometime....

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story