Man sentenced to 10 years for psychic mass-mailing fraud scheme [Video]

The Department of Justice said a Canadian man has been given a 10-year prison sentence after a court found that he defrauded 1.3 million Americans by operating a psychic mass-mailing fraud scheme.

The DOJ says Patrice Runner was convicted in 2023 of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of mail fraud and wire fraud. The DOJ said he operated the scheme for nearly 20 years, from 1994 to 2014. 

The DOJ said Runner sent mailings to millions of Americans, mainly older people, that “promised that the recipient had the opportunity to achieve great wealth and happiness with the assistance of the ‘psychics’ in exchange for payment of a fee.” The DOJ said the letters purported to be individualized from well-known self-proclaimed psychics Maria Duval and Patrick Guerin. In reality, Duval and Guerin were not involved in the scheme. 

In total, the scheme cost Americans $175 million.

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