Global Courant
A federal jury in the United States has convicted a Canadian man of carrying out a “psychic” mass mailing scheme that defrauded victims out of more than $175 million over several decades.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on June 16 that a jury in New York’s Eastern District has convicted Patrice Runner, 57, a Canadian and French citizen, of conspiracy to commit mail and telegram fraud. eight counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was found not guilty of four other counts of mail fraud.
Chris Nielsen, Inspector in Charge of the Philadelphia Division of the US Postal Inspection Service, said in a press release that the “verdict should not have come as a surprise to Mr. Runner”.
“Postal inspectors are committed to protecting American consumers by removing these fraudulent mailings from the mail flow,” he said.
The DOJ says Runner could face 20 years in prison for each time he is convicted. He will remain in custody until sentencing.
Four others have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, including Maria Thanos, 59, and Philip Lett, 52, both of Montreal, Sherry Gore, 72, of Indiana, and Daniel Arnold, 61, of Indiana. Connecticut.
The DOJ says at Runner’s behest that his co-conspirators ran the scheme’s day-to-day operations through a Canadian company, while he used shell companies in Canada and Hong Kong to hide his involvement.
Runner, who was extradited to the United States by officials from Spain in December 2020, had lived in multiple countries while the fraud took place, the DOJ says, including Spain, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Costa Rica.
‘MARIA DUVAL SCAM’
The DOJ says that between 1994 and 2014, Runner ran a so-called “Maria Duval Scam” named after the alleged psychic whose name was associated with this type of practice. fraud of millions of dollars in the past.
The plan involved Runner sending fake personalized letters to millions of people in the US, many described as elderly and frail, from people claiming to be psychic.
The letters, the DOJ says, “promised that the recipient would have an opportunity to acquire great wealth and good fortune with the help of the psychic, in return for payment of compensation.”
“While the letters of the plan often stated that a psychic had seen a personalized vision related to the recipient of the letter, the plan actually sent nearly identical form letters to tens of thousands of victims each week,” the DOJ says.
“Runner and his co-conspirators obtained the names of elderly and vulnerable victims by renting and trading mailing lists with other email fraud programs. In reality, the so-called ‘psychics’ identified in the letters sent by the scheme played no role in the sending the letters, received no responses from the victims, and did not send the additional letters after the victims paid money.
After one payment, a victim would be “bombarded” with letters offering more services for a fee.
In the end, some victims lost thousands of dollars.
