U.S. jury convicts Canadian for defrauding victims of millions in mass-mailing 'psychic' scheme

The seal for the U.S. Department of Justice is displayed on a podium in Washington, April 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

A federal jury in the United States has convicted a Canadian man for running a mass-mailing "psychic" scheme that defrauded victims of more than US$175 million over multiple decades.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on June 16 that a jury in the Eastern District of New York had convicted 57-year-old Patrice Runner, who is both a Canadian and French citizen, of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, eight counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was found not guilty on four other counts of mail fraud.

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Chris Nielsen, inspector in charge with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Philadelphia Division, said in a news release that the "verdict should have come as no surprise to Mr. Runner."

"Postal Inspectors are committed to protecting American consumers by eliminating these fraudulent mailings from the mailstream," he said.

The DOJ says Runner could face 20 years in prison for each count he was convicted. He will remain in custody until sentencing.

Four others, meanwhile, have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud including 59-year-old Maria Thanos and 52-year-old Philip Lett, both from Montreal, 72-year-old Sherry Gore of Indiana and 61-year-old Daniel Arnold of Connecticut.

The DOJ says on Runner's instructions, his co-conspirators ran the day-to-day operations of the scheme through a Canadian company, while he used shell companies in Canada and Hong Kong to hide his involvement.

Runner, who officials extradited from Spain to the United States in December 2020, had lived in multiple countries while the fraud occurred, the DOJ says, including Spain, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Costa Rica.

'MARIA DUVAL SCAM'

The DOJ says between 1994 and 2014, Runner ran what is known as a "Maria Duval Scam," named after the alleged psychic whose name became associated with this type of multimillion-dollar fraud in the past.

The scheme involved Runner sending fake personalized letters to millions of people in the U.S., many described as elderly and vulnerable, from people claiming to be psychics.

The letters, the DOJ says, "promised that the recipient had the opportunity to achieve great wealth and happiness with the psychic's assistance, in exchange for payment of a fee."

"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 says.

"Runner and his co-conspirators obtained the names of elderly and vulnerable victims by renting and trading mailing lists with other mail fraud schemes. In reality, the so-called 'psychics' identified in the letters sent by the scheme had no role in sending the letters, did not receive responses from the victims, and did not send the additional letters after victims paid money."

After one payment, a victim would be "bombarded" with letters offering more services at a fee.

In the end, some victims lost thousands of dollars.