Virginia Beach woman convicted of running “Jamaica lottery” scam for at
A Virginia Beach woman called people on the phone, saying they’d won a lottery they didn’t remember entering.
All they had to do was pay some taxes and fees.
But after the checks cleared, the riches never came.
It was all a scam.
Nena Kochuga, 54, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of mail fraud. She is set to be sentenced Sept. 30 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
According to court documents, Kochuga — who has been targeting elderly victims with similar “Jamaica lottery” scams for most of the past decade — worked with several others to solicit and receive the money. This particular scheme stretched from at least May 2016 to March 2017 and involved the theft of more than $50,000.
Each call followed a similar script. After telling victims they had won the lottery, the callers would say they needed to pay some money before they could collect.
In the beginning, Kochuga directed the victims to send cash and money orders to her home address in Virginia Beach. Later, she started using a post office box investigators were able to trace back to her.
Some victims also wired Kochuga the money using MoneyGram, Western Union and other services, documents said. One victim sent more than $10,300 to her.
As part of an arrangement with her bosses, Kochuga was supposed to keep 25 percent of the money she received and forward the rest to others. In all, she sent more than $16,000 to Jamaica and more than $1,600 to Ghana.
In 2011 and 2013, Kochuga was convicted in Virginia Beach Circuit Court of obtaining money by false pretense in separate cases.
Last year, she pleaded guilty in Colorado to stealing more than $20,000. Her victim, an 83-year-old woman, thought she’d won $9 million, according to court documents.
“Kochuga and her co-conspirators lied, cheated, and stole from their victims out of greed,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia. “The financial and emotional harm these scams cause elderly victims and their family members can be utterly devastating.”