Canadian guilty in $175M psychic fraud scam

A Canadian man who ran a 20-year mailing scheme defrauding some 1.3 million victims of more than $175 million (U.S.) was handed a 10-year sentence in a New York court on Monday.

Patrice Runner, 57, was extradited from Spain to the United States in 2020 to face federal charges and convicted last June of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of mail fraud and wire fraud.

His scheme, which ran from 1994 until 2014, sent letters to millions of people in the United States falsely posing as personalized communications from supposed well-known psychics Maria Duval and Patrick Guerin, although most letters were “nearly identical,” and not, in fact, sent by Duval and Guerin, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

The correspondence would promise a chance at wealth and happiness for a fee, and once a victim made a payment, they would be sent dozens more letters, all offering additional services for more fees. Some victims made dozens of payments, costing them thousands of dollars, the Department of Justice said.

Many of the millions of U.S. residents who received the letter were “elderly and vulnerable,” according to the release.

“Patrice Runner’s extravagant lifestyle, born on the backs of millions of older and vulnerable Americans, has come to an end,” said Chris Nielsen, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Philadelphia Division.

In a 2023 interview with The Walrus, Runner insisted that the business he ran was legal.

Four other people, including two Canadians in Montreal, previously pleaded guilty to commit mail fraud in connection with the scheme.

His scheme saw letters sent to millions of people in the United States purportedly from two supposed well-known psychics