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Ryan Young, 40, of Upper Saddle River, had pleaded guilty in February 2018 to participating in a large-scale international mail-fraud scheme that fleeced victims of $50 million.
The scammer sent fraudulent prize notification letters to victims in the U.S. and other countries falsely claiming that they’d won money or valuable prizes, such as luxury cars, federal authorities said.
Victims were instructed to send small processing fees – ordinarily $20 or $25 – to claim their prize, they said.
“Many victims received nothing,” the Justice Department wrote in a release issued Friday, March 17. “Others received only a cheap piece of jewelry or a report listing unrelated sweepstakes.”
Young had been freed pending sentencing when he launched another scheme, mailing out letters “falsely notifying recipients that they were entitled to receive unclaimed funds worth millions of dollars, a portion of a multi-million-dollar legal settlement, or a prize, in exchange for payment of a small fee of $30 to $40,” the Justice Department wrote.
“Young did not deliver funds to any of the victims who sent payments in response to these letters,” it noted.
Instead, he sent worthless materials that the victims could have obtained on their own, federal prosecutors charged.
These included:
- a booklet providing publicly available information regarding government Unclaimed Property Divisions in various states;
- a booklet providing publicly available information regarding a few class action settlements;
- a flyer regarding online restaurant coupons.
Chris Nielsen, the inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Philadelphia Division, thanked his colleagues in Newark, as well as Justice Department prosecutors and Fort Lee police, for their work in the case.
Young took a deal from the government rather than face trial, pleading guilty in federal court in Central Islip, LI, to conspiracy to commit mail fraud on Thursday, March 16.
U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack scheduled sentencing for July 19.
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