(Springfield’s News Talk 104.1) – A Mt. Vernon woman was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday for leading a conspiracy to purchase nearly 2,000 lottery tickets with stolen credit cards.

31-year-old Amy Young was charged in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield.

The indictment alleges that Young obtained stolen credit cards and led a conspiracy to use those stolen credit cards to purchase lottery tickets from a Phillips 66 Fuel Station in Joplin between July 22 and Aug. 18, 2022.

Young allegedly enlisted the help of others to contact the Missouri Lottery Commission to obtain cash prizes for any winning lottery tickets that were fraudulently purchased using stolen credit cards. They kept a portion of the money for themselves and turned over the rest of the money to Young.

According to the indictment, Young used stolen credit cards to purchase at least 1,957 Missouri Lottery tickets with a value of $62,082. Additionally, Young and her co-conspirators received $54,248 in cash prizes for the winning tickets purchased using stolen credit card numbers.

In total, between the fraudulent credit card transactions and the prize money fraudulently received, Young and her co-conspirators fraudulently received at least $116,330.

The indictment charges Young with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud (related to the fraudulent purchase of $480 in lottery tickets with a stolen credit card on Aug. 18, 2022).

The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the FBI.