A Canadian man has been convicted in a mass-mailing fraud scheme that swindled citizens in the United States out of more than $175 million over the span of two decades.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement that Patrice Runner, 57, was convicted last Friday by a federal jury in New York for his role in the long-running psychic scam. U.S. prosecutors say Runner and his co-conspirators mailed fraudulent letters supposedly from psychics to millions of Americans.
Runner, who is both a Canadian and French citizen, was found guilty on 14 charges. This includes conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, eight counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The accused was reportedly in charge of the 20-year letter scam, which began in 1994 and lasted through November 2014. Runner gave instructions to his co-conspirators, who ran the direct-mail operation through a company based in Montreal.
“Runner used a series of shell companies registered in Canada and Hong Kong to hide his involvement in the scheme while living in multiple foreign countries, including Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and Spain,” the DOJ said.
The mass-mailing scheme sent letters pretending to be from psychics to U.S. residents, many of which were elderly and vulnerable. The note would promise an opportunity to “achieve great wealth and happiness with the psychic’s assistance, in exchange for payment of a fee.”
The DOJ said once a victim made a single payment, they would be “bombarded with dozens of additional letters, all purporting to be personalized communications from the psychics and offering additional services and items for a fee.”
Some of the victims lost thousands of dollars in the scam.
“Although the scheme’s letters frequently stated that a psychic had seen a personalized vision regarding the recipient of the letter, in fact, the scheme sent nearly identical form letters to tens of thousands of victims each week,” the DOJ said.
“Runner and his co-conspirators obtained the names of elderly and vulnerable victims by renting and trading mailing lists with other mail fraud schemes.”
While the direct-mail operation pretended that letters were authored by well-known psychics, the DOJ said the latter never received payment or wrote any of the notes.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case and in December 2020, Runner was extradited from Spain to the U.S. on several charges.
Runner will remain in prison until his sentencing, which will be at a future unspecified date. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count, the DOJ said.
Meanwhile, four other people involved in the scheme previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Among them are Maria Thanos and Philip Lett, both from Montreal.
— with files from The Canadian Press