Three guilty in prize fraud

‘Sweepstakes’ hit seniors

Three South Florida men have been found guilty of running a $25 million sweepstakes mail fraud that victimized more than100,000 people — mostly seniors — in the U.S. and other countries, prosecutors said Friday.

Matthew Pisoni, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Marcus Pradel, 41, of Boca Raton, and Victor Ramirez, 37, of Aventura, were found guilty of conspiring to commit mail fraud, after a fiveweek jury trial that ended earlier thisweek in federal court in Miami. Jurors found them not guilty of several other charges.

John Leon, 49, of Wilton Manors, previ--

ously pleaded guilty to the same charge last year and had been expected to testify against the others.

But, in a blistering ruling in November, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles barred federal prosecutors fromusing Leon’s testimony. The judge said prosecutors should not have allowed Le onto spy on hisco-defendants and their lawyers after he and his attorney secretly made a plea deal with the prosecution team.

The judge called the prosecution’s handling of the matter “extraordinary” and harshly criticized them for not preventing Leon from acting as a “mole” in the defense camp. The judge said they should have, at a minimum, run it by their bosses at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and sought explicit permission fromhim.

Prosecutors said the four men mailed letters to potential victims, falsely informing them they had won a substantial prize and that they would have to pay a fee of $20 to $50 to redeem their winnings. More than 100,000 victims sent about $25 million in response to the letters, investigators said.

According to evidence in the trial, the fraud was masterminded by Pisoni, who is the son-in-law of the late self-help guru Wayne Dyer.

All four men face a maximum punishment of 20 years in federal prison when they are sentenced in October.