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A conman who swindled more than $175million from 1.3million elderly and ‘vulnerable’ Americans in a two-decade mail scam has been jailed for 10 years.
Patrice Runner, 57, operated an international mail fraud scam in which he pretended to be a psychic and promised wealth and happiness to those who sent him cash in the post, the US Department of Justice said.
Runner, who holds both Canadian and French citizenship, was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of mail fraud and wire fraud in June 2023. He was found not guilty on four counts of mail fraud.
Runner, who authorities had been pursuing since 2014, was handed a decade-long sentence by a New York judge on Monday.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, which investigated his crimes, said after his sentencing that Runner’s ‘extravagant lifestyle, born on the backs of millions of older and vulnerable Americans, has come to an end’.
Four other co-conspirators had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with his mass-mailing fraud scheme.
Patrice Runner, 57, (pictured) has been jailed for 10 years after swindling more than $175million from 1.3million elderly and ‘vulnerable’ Americans in a two-decade mail scam
Using the name and image of Maria Duval, along with that of another French psychic named Patrick Guerin, Runner and his co-conspirators would send letters promising recipients that her psychic guidance and talismans could help turn their lives around
The fraud scheme, which began in 1994 and ran until November 2014, preyed on the elderly and those in desperate positions who were trying to get back on their feet financially.
Using the name and image of Maria Duval, along with that of another French psychic named Patrick Guerin, Runner and his co-conspirators would send letters promising recipients that her psychic guidance and talismans could help turn their lives around.
The fraudsters obtained the names of the vulnerable and elderly by renting and trading mailing lists with other mail fraud schemes.
When a victim would reply to one letter, Runner and his co-conspirators reportedly bombarded them with dozens of additional letters, with some victims receiving as many as 100, according to prosecutors.
Each of the additional letters reportedly also appeared to be a personalized written communication, with portions of it seemingly handwritten, and sought further payment from the victim.
Victims were directed to send payment – often ranging from $5 to $50 – to purchase various purported ‘unique and supernatural objects’, which were in fact cheap, mass produced trinkets, the indictment claimed.
They were also urged to submit payment to receive ‘personalized astrological services and studies’, which were never actually returned.
Prosecutors say that neither Duval nor Guerin had any role in sending the letters, did not receive the responses from the victims and did not send the additional letters after victims had paid money.
Runner, who holds both Canadian and French citizenship, was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of mail fraud and wire fraud in June 2023. He was found not guilty on four counts of mail fraud
The letters sent in response were addressed to a New York-based company where employees ‘threw the vast majority of responses from victims in the trash’, an indictment said.
According to the Department of Justice, Runner used a series of shell companies registered in Canada and Hong Kong to conceal his involvement in the scheme while he was living abroad in multiple foreign countries, including Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and Spain.
Infogest Direct Marketing profited from the letters, according to court documents.
They were printed in Canada and driven to Albany, New York using a truck before they mailed out in large batches, of up to 50,000 at a time.
Runner denied breaking the law, telling The Walrus Magazine last year ‘maybe it’s not moral, maybe it’s bullshit… But it doesn’t mean it’s fraud’.
He also bragged to the magazine about his writing abilities and claimed he could ‘get the attention of someone, and at the end, after a few minutes, the person sends a cheque, to get a product, to an address or company they’ve never heard of’.
A grand jury in the Eastern District of New York indicted Runner in October 2018, and he was arrested in Ibiza in April the following year, before being transferred to a jail in Madrid.
He was extradited to the United States from Spain in December 2020 and on June 16 last year was found guilty by a federal jury.
In 2019, investigators with the United States Postal Inspection Service said they had been able to return more than $200,000 worth of cash and money order payments sent in by nearly 6,000 victims.
Along with pending checks and credit payments that were stopped, the investigation saved victims about $827,000.
As of last June, most victims hadn’t received any money back, and officials said it will be incredibly unlikely most ever will.
Prosecutors say that neither Duval nor Guerin had any role in sending the letters, did not receive the responses from the victims and did not send the additional letters after victims had paid money
Each of the additional letters reportedly also appeared to be a personalized written communication, with portions of it seemingly handwritten, and sought further payment from the victim, according to prosecutors
Inspector in Charge Chris Nielsen of the USPIS Philadelphia Division, in a Monday press release announcing Runner’s sentence, said: ‘The conviction and federal sentencing of Patrice Runner is the appropriate punishment for someone who routinely preyed on vulnerable and elderly Americans.
‘Postal Inspectors will continue to work tirelessly to ensure you can trust that the US Mail is free of these types of predatory schemes.’
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, added: ‘This case demonstrates that the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch and its partners in the USPIS are committed to investigating and prosecuting transnational fraud schemes targeting Americans consumers.
‘The global nature of this scheme meant that we had to rely on law enforcement from around the globe to provide evidence of criminality. We want to thank officials from France, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Canada, and in particular the Canadian Competition Bureau, for providing assistance in securing evidence in this matter, as well as Spain for arresting and extraditing Runner, ensuring that justice could be done.’
