ST. LOUIS – A man who fled the St. Louis area in 2018 after learning that he was being investigated for participating in a Jamaican lottery scam pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Christopher Gibbon, 55, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in January to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He admitted receiving packages containing cash, checks and money orders from victims, as well as at least one wire transfer. He also admitted that co-conspirators in Jamaica called victims falsely claiming that the victims had won the lottery but needed to send taxes and fees to Gibbon before they could collect their prizes. Gibbon admitted receiving about $96,302 from eight victims between Dec. 19, 2016, and July 9, 2018, his plea says. Gibbon kept 20% of the money before electronically transferring the rest to co-conspirators. Gibbon received fake letters from conspirators via WhatsApp that purported to be from U.S. government officials asserting that the lottery was legitimate. He mailed those letters from the U.S. because victims would have become suspicious if the letters came from Jamaica.
On July 5, 2018, a New Jersey victim handed an envelope to a Postal Service employee addressed to Gibbon and said she was mailing to money to become a millionaire. She returned with more packages on July 6 and July 9, triggering the investigation, his plea says.
On July 20, 2018, less than two days after he was interviewed by U.S. Postal Inspectors, Gibbon told his wife that he was going to work and disappeared, according to court filings. He was arrested in 2025 in Connecticut.
Gibbon is scheduled to be sentenced on December 21. The charge carries a potential penalty of up to 30 years in prison, a fine of up to $1 million, or both prison and a fine.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Marshals Service Jamaica Foreign Field Office and the Connecticut Organized Financial Fraud Task Force investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwen Carroll is prosecuting the case.