LOS ANGELES - A Vancouver telemarketer who bilked mainly elderly victims out of nearly $2 million has been sentenced in Los Angeles.
Dillon Sherif was ordered this week to spend more than 14 years in prison and to repay his victims nearly $925,000.
The U.S. attorney's office says the 49-year-old operated phoney lotteries from Canada and Spain.
Prosecutors say his telemarketers would call victims in the U.S. and Canada and claim they could collect lottery winnings after they paid taxes and fees.
Authorities say Sherif, who is an Iraqi citizen, started the scams while he was wanted for a similar scheme that bilked thousands of people out of $5 million.
Sherif, who was sentenced late Monday, twice jumped bail but was arrested in England last year and pleaded guilty in June to mail fraud.
