U.S. extradition granted for B.C. man accused of sweepstakes fraud

A text reproduction of a mass-mailing solicitation message, provided by U.S. authorities, highlighted in a B.C. Supreme Court decision.

An extradition request from the U.S. government for a Canadian man accused of operating a “mass-mailing prize solicitation scheme” has been approved in B.C. Supreme Court.

Justice Richard Fowler found the U.S. had established a prima facie case of sweepstakes fraud against Terrance Shawn Phillips, ordering the accused be held in custody pending his surrender to authorities south of the border.

“I do not weigh the strength of the case,” Fowler noted in his Nov. 20 decision. “My role at this committal hearing is to determine whether the evidence would justify committal for trial on the offence of fraud in Canada.”

The U.S. accused Phillips of directing mass-mailings that gave a “false impression” the recipients had won between $714,000 and $2 million.

To collect the winnings, recipients were told to mail in a fee ranging from $19.95 to $31.95, according to a summary of the U.S. government’s evidence.

That summary included text reproductions of four such solicitations, with one reading, in part: “Let It Be Stated for The Record THAT ON THIS DAY, (date of mailing), The Offices of the Pinkerton Prize Report Authority Herewith Confirms The Stated Individual (name and address of recipient) Is The Guaranteed Receiver Of The Available Cash & Awards Opportunity As Reported On Ledger Of Entrant Directives On File For Prompt Release In The Full And Total Amount Stated *** $1,200,000.00.”

Individuals who sent in a fee received no cash in return, but were mailed a “booklet containing publicly available information about sweepstake contests that any member of the public could enter,” Fowler said, explaining the U.S.’s case.

The allegations against Phillips have not been proven in court.

In his defence, Phillips argued the text reproductions provided by American authorities were incomplete, and therefore couldn’t be used to properly assess whether the actual mailings were dishonest.

“An extract of an alleged dishonest mailing is, Mr. Phillips submits, manifestly unreliable, and so cannot be a basis for drawing reliable inferences,” Fowler said.

While responding to a complaint about the mailings, the accused said they “make it clear that we are selling a report, that the offer is an ‘opportunity’ to win, and that in fact the customer has not won any money or prize,” according to a quote included with the U.S. evidence.

Fowler accepted he wasn’t privy to what the actual mailings said or looked like in their entirety, but found the reproductions were not “so unreliable” that he couldn’t consider them at all in his ruling. He also noted Phillips never specified what information had been excluded, or argued anything in the incomplete reproductions was inaccurate.

Based on the evidence presented, the justice found it was a “reasonable inference that people reading these mailings could conclude that the recipient had won a large cash prize,” and that the mailings were dishonest.

“It is also reasonable to infer that (Phillips) knew that the text of the solicitations was intentionally created to induce someone to believe they had won a large prize, rather than simply an ill-defined ‘opportunity,’” Fowler said.

The accused will not be surrendered before 30 days have past, the justice noted, and he has the right to appeal the decision.