Alando Gentles
Introduction
Alando Gentles, 43, of Jamaica, has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for wire fraud conspiracy involving a telemarketing lottery scam targeting elderly victims. Chief United States District Judge Sherri A. Lydon imposed 36 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision, and ordered Gentles to pay $349,433.75 in restitution to the victims of his crime. There is no parole in the federal system.
Background Information
Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Postal Inspection Service learned that individuals in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, were operating a cash award and lottery telemarketing scam with domestic and international connections, targeted at elderly victims, that occurred from around June 2015 until around May 2022 — a scheme the investigation tied to at least 115 victims in total. The fraud worked on the oldest confidence structure in the book: victims were told they had won a sweepstakes, then told they had to pay taxes and fees to claim or receive their winnings that never existed.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Gentles received a 36-month term and a $349,433.75 restitution order for his admitted role in the years-long sweepstakes fraud.
The investigation identified Gentles as an individual who participated in the scheme from Jamaica. He and co-conspirators contacted elderly victims by phone and mail and falsely informed them they had won a sweepstakes, then directed them to pay taxes and fees — money that moved through prepaid cards, USPS money orders, and bank money orders, mailed cash or personal checks, deposits into co-conspirators’ bank accounts, and wire transfers. Gentles’s particular role sat at the Jamaica end of the pipeline: he received wire transfers of funds obtained from the scheme there and made ATM withdrawals in Jamaica from an account holding scheme proceeds. Following his indictment, he was extradited from Jamaica for federal prosecution.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The restitution order — $349,433.75 to the victims — attaches to a sentence that also carries three years of court-ordered supervision after the prison term, a window during which Gentles, a Jamaican citizen prosecuted after extradition, will almost certainly face removal proceedings rather than supervised life in the United States. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Postal Inspection Service, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Hummel prosecuted. The 115-victim count means the sentencing hearing record reflects hundreds of thousands of dollars taken one small tax payment at a time from people selected precisely because age made them persuadable.
Current Status
Gentles is sentenced and the restitution obligation is fixed; the October 7, 2026 announcement records the complete judgment — 36 months, three years of supervision, and $349,433.75 owed. The scheme itself ran from around June 2015 until around May 2022, and the charges reached him only through extradition, which means the conduct predated his prosecution by years — the tail of the conspiracy extended into 2022, and the sentence arrived in 2026. No further proceedings are noted in the announcement.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Gentles’s participation was his occupation: a Jamaica-based collection node for an international sweepstakes fraud, receiving and dispensing victim money through wire transfers and ATM withdrawals until the indictment ended it. Extradition to face charges — a step requiring a foreign court’s finding — is itself a career-ending event for a scam operator, uprooting him from Jamaica to a South Carolina federal docket. The 36-month term and restitution order follow him back across the border after release, and the conviction records him permanently in United States courts as a participant in a fraud that made at least 115 elderly people pay to collect winnings that never came.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of South Carolina, “Jamaican National Sentenced to Federal Prison for Role in Telemarketing Lottery Scam Targeting Elderly Victims” — source