State prison for lottery scammer

‘International con man’ to serve 15 to 30 years for victimizing elderly

WEST CHESTER » The investigation into and criminal prosecution of “international con man” Jack Mayer reads likes something from a film screenplay, a Common Pleas Court judge here commented before sentencing him.

A man born into great wealth and educated at colleges across Europe, accustomed to living in luxury and dealing with complex finances, devolves into criminal activity, joining with shadowy men into defrauding elderly

Americans across the country of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in a sophisticated lottery scam.

But in Downingtown a lone borough detective, presented with a complaint from a octogenarian resident that he had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a man who assured him he had won $3.5 million, begins hunting for the perpetrator. After four years, the man is captured after fleeing from the authorities in Great Britain, brought to Chester County, tried by a local jury, and convicted of what the prosecutor in the case against Mayer called “a crime of staggering proportions.”

And on Friday, Mayer — a 43-year-old foreignborn man dressed in a stylish black blazer, grey flannel trousers, and sporting a neatly trimmed shock of salt-and-pepper black hair — was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in a state prison. He was led from the courtroom in the county Justice Center in handcuffs and shackles.

“If the facts of this case were not true, it would be interesting and entertain- ing,” said Judge Phyllis Streitel, who presided over Mayer’s trial in September and sentenced him on multiple counts of thefts, dealing in illegal proceeds, operating a corrupt organization, and conspiracy.

“But this is not some Hollywood movie,” Streitel said after reciting facts from the pre-sentencing report prepared about Mayer’s life of crime. “It is heartbreaking.”

She said Mayer and his co-conspirators in the lottery scheme preyed specifically on older persons who they knew had large amounts of cash on hand, and who might be less likely to report the thefts they discovered for fear of embarrassment.

“You stole their money,” she told Mayer, who ha continued to maintain his innocence since his arrest earlier this year. “But here, in Chester County, one police officer put this all together and brought it to this court. What you did is horrible. Your behavior in this case was cold, cruel, calculating, and sinister.

“It’s disgusting,” Streitel concluded before handing down her sentence on the 22 counts before her.

In the courtroom watching the proceeding was the victim, an 87-year-old retired engineer from East

The sentence was less harsh than what Assistant District Attorney Alex Gosfield had asked the judge to impose.

Caln who wired more than a quarter of a million dollars to Mayer and his cohorts until ‘ the light went on” as Streitel put it, and he contacted Downingtown police. He did not address the court.

Also there was borough police Detective Paul Trautmann, the investigator who opened the door on the international scheme that defrauded dozens of victims not only in Pennsylvania but elsewhere and who eventually cornered Mayer after he was deported from the Dominican Republic to Florida, after having fled England ahead of a London trial in which he was convicted in absentia of stealing 1.7 million British pounds, or about $2.6 million.

Streitel’s sentence, although harsh, was less than what Assistant District Attorney Alex Gosfield, who prosecuted the case, had asked her to impose. Gosfield urged her to hand down a sentence of 322 to 944 months — about 26-to78 years behind bars.

“The defendant has no moral qualms about any criminal scheme, no matter how harmful to the public,” said Gosfield in a sentencing memo prepared for Streitel, in which he used unusually strong language to depict Mayer and his crimes. “He is open to anything that has money attached to it. The purpose of the defendant’s scheme was to steal (a) lifetime of hard work from his victims.”

For the Downingtown victim and the others, “there is no way to get back what was taken from tem,” Gosfield said in the 30-page memo. “Because he chose to target elderly victims, (Mayer’s) crimes are not merely a matter of replacing money. His crimes are the difference between health and illness, and perhaps between longer life and a too-early death.

Indeed, two of the victims identified in the case, one from North Carolina, died before Mayer’s trial opened on Sept. 15.

“He has shown no remorse for his actions and has demonstrated extreme indifference to the consequences for the victims,” Gosfield wrote. “He is not someone who experienced a momentary lapse into crime, but a sophisticated career criminal whose primary expertise is in evading the obstacles the societies of the world create to ensure that crime does not pay.”

“No prison sentence is long enough to rehabilitate this defendant. In fact, prison will likely only serve a a perverse business opportunity, a chance for him to meet and network with other criminals who might need his services or empty him in the future.

“It is seldom that a court has the opportunity t deliver a sentence to a true international con man,” Gosfield concluded. “They operate in the shadows, usually above and beyond the reach of law, making life miserable for anyone who has the misfortune to cross their paths.

“The sentence of Jack Mayer should serve as a stunning warning to all of these vipers — you do not touch the elderly citizens of this county or this country, or you will pay a fearsome price.”

Mayer, 43, did not address STreitel at the sentencing hearing, shaking his head when she asked if he cared to make a statement in his defense. “I have nothing to say,” he said,

His attorney, Joshua Adams Janis of Malvern, asked Streitel to grant his client some leniency, noting that he had technically never been convicted of any previous crime and thus was appearing before her as a first-time offender.

“The facts shows he is not a career criminal,” Janis said, taking issue with Gosfield’s description. He is a man in his 40s with no criminal record.”

Janis said that what Gosfield asked for was “essentially a life sentence” for someone who maintains he was, and is, a legitimate businessman. “A 26year sentence is vastly over what justice should be in this case.”

Streitel noted that regardless of what sentence she handed down, Mayer still faced an additional six years in prison in his former home of Great Britain, having been sentenced in absentia to that term.

She also ordered him to pay restitution to his victims, including the East Caln man, although she and Gosfield acknowledged that it was unlikely any funds could be taken from his complex bank arrangements. “The defendant has money in off-shore accounts that I can’t touch,” Gosfield remarked.

According to police records, in 2010 a caller using a false name contacted the victim by telephone and told him that he was the winner of a $3.5 million lottery prize. Police said the caller instructed the victim to send cashier’s checks to a bank account with “Private and Corporate Securities” to cover taxes and fees so the sweepstakes winnings could be released.

According to a criminal complaint filed by investigators, the caller provided the victim with names and contact information of supposed representatives of the IRS and Federal Trade Commission and claimed to work for a sweepstakes company called Town & Country Inc., based in New York City. None of the names were real, and there is no sweepstakes company with that name.

The victim, who was 86 years old at the time of the incident, sent a total of $262,035 to the account, but reported the activity to the Downingtown Police Department after the caller requested an additional $224,000.

After the sentencing, Gosfield tried to put the case in perspective.

“There are few things as disturbing to society’s sense of justice as a criminal who gets away with his crimes,” he said in a statement. “Mr. Mayer has, for over a decade, been that criminal, the man who got away. He has used his smarts and sophistication to escape justice, to slip across international borders, and to continue committing crimes worldwide. Today, that streak ended when justice caught up with one of the most sophisticated international criminals the Philadelphia area has ever seen.

“Thanks to Judge Streitel, a diligent and hard-working panel of jurors, and especially the tireless investigation of Downingtown Detective Paul Trautmann, this con artist will be prevented from preying upon the innocent for a very, very long time,” he said. “You can run, and you can hide, but if you victimize the citizens of Chester County, justice will find you.” To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610696-1544

Jack Mayer