A 55-year-old man who vanished from Florissant, Missouri, in July 2018 has admitted to helping run a Jamaican lottery scam that bilked elderly victims across the country, after spending seven years living under false identities in New England before U.S. Postal Inspectors finally caught up to him in Connecticut. Christopher Gibbon pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
According to the First Alert 4, Gibbon received packages of cash, checks and money orders from four victims, plus at least one wire transfer, while his co-conspirators in Jamaica called victims and told them they had won the lottery. Those callers then instructed victims to send taxes and fees to Gibbon before they could supposedly collect their winnings, the station reports. Prosecutors said Gibbon received about $96,302 from victims, and he reportedly kept 20% of the money for himself while transferring the rest back to his co-conspirators.
Court filings detail one especially stark example: a victim sent $50,000 directly to Gibbon's address after being told to pay fraudulent taxes on lottery winnings that never existed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Individual payments mailed to Gibbon ranged from $190 to $50,000, per the same filings.
A Tip From New Jersey Cracked the Case
The scheme began to unravel in July 2018 when a victim in New Jersey handed packages addressed to Gibbon to a postal service employee, sparking the investigation, First Alert 4 reports. That victim reportedly told investigators she was mailing money because she believed it would make her a millionaire. U.S. Postal Inspectors interviewed Gibbon that same month, and he reportedly told his wife he was going to work before disappearing entirely.
The case involved communications between Gibbon and co-conspirators in Jamaica, according to the Justice Department. AARP has reported that Jamaican commercial call centers emerged in the early 2000s and describes Project JOLT as a collaboration between the Department of Homeland Security, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and U.S. agencies, as reported by AARP.
Seven Years, Multiple Aliases, One Nametag
After fleeing Florissant in July 2018, Gibbon lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, under the alias Raseqhenre Heedram, according to federal court filings cited by the Justice Department. He was wearing a nametag reading Amos Johnson when Postal Inspectors finally arrested him in Connecticut in August 2025, First Alert 4 reports.
The investigation involved U.S. Postal Inspectors, per the Justice Department. Original indictment records from December 2019 identify Gibbon as a former St. Louis County resident and describe his participation in lottery schemes, according to the Justice Department.
Legal Exposure and December Sentencing
Gibbon is scheduled to be sentenced on December 21, First Alert 4 reports. Gibbon pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count, according to the Justice Department.
Part of a Wider Pattern Hitting Elderly Victims
Gibbon's case fits a pattern federal agencies have been chasing aggressively. Federal agencies have also worked with Jamaican counterparts in lottery-scam cases, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The stakes for elderly Americans remain significant. Related lottery-scam cases have also been reported, and federal agencies continue investigating the networks behind them.
