A man has been charged with a conspiracy to commit mail fraud over a lottery scheme worth $12 million.

The 32-year-old suspect had an initial court appearance in New York on Monday for a criminal complaint filed in the District of Maryland , according to court documents.

According to an indictment, since 2020, the suspect, who is from Jamaica, and three co-conspirators contacted victims by mail or over the phone and convinced them that they had won $ 150 million in a lottery or sweepstakes and had to send payment in advance for taxes and other fees before they could receive their winnings.

T he victims allegedly sent at least $12 million in payments through wire transfer, gift cards, cash and checks , according to the indictment. A victim in Baltimore County allegedly lost over $650,000 to the scam. Another victim in Alaska lost over $7 million to the scheme, according to the indictment.

T hree co-conspirators, another Jamaican man and two men from Prince George’s County, were charged previously with conspiracy to commit mail fraud allegedly as part of the same lottery scheme.

If convicted, the suspect faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. At his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy ordered that the suspect be detained pending his transfer to the District of Maryland , according to a news release from the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office. A defense attorney was not listed in online court records Monday night.