An article in The Washington Post highlights the uniquely ironic story of a Jamaican-based telephone scam that happened to target none other than former director of the FBI and the CIA, William H. Webster. Mr. Webster is the only person to ever hold both jobs, and perhaps the worst person to be targeted with a run-of-the-mill Mega Millions scam.
The caller, a man identified as Keniel A. Thomas, called Mr. Webster and suggested that he had won $72 million and a new Mercedes Benz in the Mega Millions lottery, but he would need to send $50,000 in taxes and fees to get his money. Mr. Webster, immediately suspicious, took several steps to inform the FBI, while maintaining communication with Thomas. The FBI was able to link Mr. Webster to other victims who had reported sending funds to Thomas or to American middlemen who were also victims.
Thomas was arrested in late 2017, pleaded guilty and faced a prison term of 33 to 41 months under federal sentencing guidelines. But with the addition of Mr. Webster and his wife in the courtroom, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell added another two and a half years to Thomas’s sentence, giving him nearly six years to serve.
Read the full story here.