Scott Gammon of Queens sentenced to 3 years in prison in multimillion-dollar mass-mailing scheme, feds say
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace speaks at a news conference at the U.S. Justice Department Building in Washington on Wednesday. Credit: Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker
A Queens man who pleaded guilty to working with two Long Islanders on a multimillion-dollar mass-mailing scheme that fraudulently tricked consumers into paying a fee in hopes of winning a cash prize was sentenced Thursday to 36 months in federal prison, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack also ordered Scott Gammon, 48, of Howard Beach, to forfeit $139,611.97. Gammon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in March.
Gammon’s co-defendants Christopher King, 37, of Oceanside, and Natasha Khan, 39, of Elmont, also pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for taking part in the scam, which allegedly targeted the elderly, and are awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.
Gammon engaged in the direct-mail scheme that sent fraudulent prize notification mailings to thousands of consumers from August 2014 to August 2019, prosecutors said. Consumers were persuaded to pay a fee through the mailings, in exchange for a large cash prize — a prize no one ever received, prosecutors said.
The mailings came from entities using names including Research America Network, Asset Notification Program, Acceptance Division and Award Allocation of America, prosecutors said.
“Financially exploiting the elderly and other victims through fraudulent prize schemes is a form of abuse and deserving of punishment as today’s sentence demonstrates,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “A term in prison should deter others from preying on the vulnerable.”
Defense attorneys for Gammon and the other defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.
Daniel B. Brubaker of the United States Postal Inspection Service said in a statement: “Today’s sentencing brings to a close the investigation of Mr. Gammon, who devised a fake prize promotion scheme designed to defraud older Americans and steal from those who believed they had won a prize. Unfortunately, for those who participated, they realized too late that they had been swindled. When a prize did not materialize, and their money was not returned, they became victims. Postal Inspectors remind consumers to be ever vigilant and play an active role in protecting their money. If you’re asked to pay for a prize you didn’t enter to win, it’s a scam.”
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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