Canadian convicted in mass-mailing psychic scam, bilks $175M out of U.S. citizens

The Canadian man reportedly ran a direct-mail psychic readings scam through a company based in Montreal from 1994 to November 2014. Some victims handed over thousands of dollars.

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 several 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.