A 57-year-old Quebecer has just been found guilty of masterminding one of the largest mail fraud cases in US history, in which he posed as a psychic to defraud the elderly or vulnerable.

With more than a million victims taken from nearly $238 million over two decades, Patrice Runner could now establish himself as the province’s biggest con man.

For comparison, Vincent Lacroix’s spectacular scam with his investment management firm Norbourg defrauded 9,200 investors out of $130 million in 2005.

Runner was convicted by a New York State grand jury last Thursday on about 15 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money.

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From 1994 to 2014, Runner was head of Infogest Direct Marketing, a postal company that sent millions of fraudulent letters to the United States and Canada. The headquarters were located at Place Ville Marie in Montreal.

Letters sent by “world-renowned psychics” appeared at first glance to be personalized as they repeatedly gave the recipient’s name, according to the indictment document filed in 2018 and seen by him The newspaper.

For a fee ranging from $5 to $50, these psychics, who went by the names of Maria Duval and Patrick Guérin, “offered to victims to obtain good fortune or material gain, or to avoid bad luck, disease, or other negative consequences.” it says.

Other mailings asked victims to send back photos, a handprint or a strand of hair so that psychics could “perform personalized rituals and astrological services,” US authorities specify.

After the victim had transferred an initial amount to the psychic service, they asked him to pay between $20 and $50. And the scammers persisted: several victims received more than a hundred letters from them.

The letters were often personalized and provided with the name of the recipient.

Evidence submitted to the court

exchanged lists

According to US authorities, the group behind the massive scam obtained most of the victims’ names and addresses from mailing lists that were rented or swapped with other mailers.

“The mere fact that psychic or divination services are sometimes offered and sold for entertainment purposes does not mean […] “Mr. Runner’s intent was to entertain,” the US government said in a preliminary hearing.

This scam stopped in 2016 when US authorities banned the companies sending the letters from using their postal services.

front companies

“Runner used a number of shell companies registered in Canada and Hong Kong to hide his involvement in the scheme while residing in multiple countries including Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and the Netherlands. “Spain,” the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

In any case, runners face up to 20 years in prison. He will receive his sentence at a later date. The man, who held Canadian and French citizenship, was arrested in Spain in 2018 and extradited to the United States two years later.

Two of his Montreal accomplices, Maria Thanos and Philip Lett, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to mail fraud in 2018.

– With Nicolas Brasseur, Investigative Office

HIS MONTREAL DEBUT

– Runner was mentioned here as early as 1990 after he advertised the services of a psychic who could predict the winning numbers of various lotteries in the classifieds of several Montreal media outlets. He was subsequently fined over $100,000.

– To carry out his fraudulent scheme, he used various companies registered in Canada and Hong Kong while living in Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Costa Rica and Spain.

– Tens of thousands of letters were sent weekly from the Place Ville Marie offices to potential victims across America.

– According to the lawsuit, it would have killed about 1.4 million people in 20 years in the United States alone.

– If someone was unlucky enough to reply to one of the letters, he could subsequently receive more than sixty similar letters to lure him.

– Runner used the name of famous French seers, including Maria Duval. It sold the rights to use its name before losing control.

– In April 2019, the Quebecer was arrested in Ibiza, where he now lives, and extradited from Spain in 2020.

– This case has been the subject of several reports as well as a book entitled: A Deal With the Devil: The Dark and Twisted True Story of One of History’s Greatest Imposters.

– With Jonathan Tremblay