U.S. Department
of Justice
PENDING CRIMINAL DIVISION CASES
United States v. Patricia Diane Clark
Court Docket Number: 3:13-cr-00163-FDW-DCK
This case is assigned to Chief Judge Frank D. Whitney, United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, 401 West Trade Street, Room 210, Charlotte, North Carolina 28202.
The sentencing hearing for Patricia Diane Clark has been set for August 11, 2015, 9:30 a.m. at Courtroom 1-1, 401 W Trade St, Charlotte, NC 28202 before Judge Frank Whitney.
On October 22, 2014, defendant Patricia Diane Clark pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. The remaining counts will be dismissed at the time of sentencing. As a result of the guilty plea, there will be no trial involving this defendant.
If you have not yet submitted a Victim Impact Statement and would like to do so, please send in your statement no later than August 10, 2015 to: Pamela Washington, U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section, 10th & Constitution Avenue, NW, Bond Building, Room 4416, Washington, DC 20530. You may also submit the Victim Impact Statement via email at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.govor by fax at: 202-514-6118.
On June 4, 2013, charges were filed in the Western District of North Carolina against Patricia Diane Clark, a/k/a "Trisha Forbes" and "Trisha Clark" charging her with one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud (Count 1: 18 U.S.C. § 1349), five counts of wire fraud (Counts 2-6: 18 U.S.C. § 1343), one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering (Count 7: 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h)), and three counts of international money laundering (Counts 8-10: 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(A)) stemming from her role in a $4.1 million Costa Rica-based fraudulent sweepstakes telemarketing scheme. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of $4,133,908.34. The Court conducted a Competency Hearing on September 3, 2014 and concluded that the Defendant is competent to proceed consistent with federal law.
According to the indictment, Clark and her co-conspirators operated a fraudulent telemarketing call center, also referred to as a boiler room, located in Costa Rica. The defendant conspired with others to defraud United States residents, most over the age of 55, out of millions of dollars by deceiving them into believing that each had won a large monetary prize in a "sweepstakes contest." Calls to victims were made from Costa Rica using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which utilized computers to make telephone calls over the Internet, disguising the originating location of the calls. Victims were informed that the callers were purportedly from the Federal Trade Commission and that to receive their "prize," they were to wire thousands of dollars for a purported "refundable insurance fee." As long as the victims continued to pay, the co-conspirators continued to solicit them to send more money. If a victim was reluctant to send money directly to Costa Rica, the telemarketers would tell the victim to wire the money to a Western Union or MoneyGram office in California in Clark’s name, claiming she was an "agent" of the sweepstakes company. In fact, Clark would send the money to the telemarketers after taking a percentage of the fraud proceeds for herself.
If you have any questions, please call the Victim Assistance Line toll-free at 1-888-549-3945 or email us at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov.
Related case: United States v. Glen Adkins, Jr., and Warren F. Tonsing, Jr. (Court Docket No. 3:12-cr-00259) and United States v. Jeffrey Robert Bonner et al. (Court Docket No. 3:13-cr-21.
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