Patrice Runner, a Canadian and French dual-citizen man who ran a fake psychic scheme for 20 years bilking elderly Americans of over $175 million, faces up to 280 years in prison after being found guilty on Friday.

The Department of Justice’s case against Runner states, “An indictment charges Patrice Runner, 55, a French and Canadian citizen, with mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the charges, from 1994 through November 2014, Runner operated a mail fraud scheme that involved sending millions of U.S. consumers letters purporting to be from two well-known French psychics, promising that the recipient had the opportunity to achieve great wealth and happiness with the psychic’s assistance in exchange for payment of a fee.”

“The letters also frequently stated that a psychic had seen a personalized vision regarding the recipient of the letter, when in fact, the indictment alleges, the scheme sent nearly identical letters to tens of thousands of victims each week. The letters purported to be from French psychics Maria Duval or Patrick Guerin, and often included the names of the following shell companies: National Parapsychology Center, Zodiac Zone, Destiny Research Group, and Destiny Research Center,” the DOJ continued.

“Runner was arrested in Ibiza, Spain, by officers of the Spanish National Police in December 2018, based on the U.S. indictment. Following extradition proceedings, the Spanish government released Runner to the custody of U.S. Postal Inspectors on Dec. 21, 2020,” the press release concluded.

Canadian Man Convicted in Multimillion-Dollar Psychic Mass-Mailing Fraud Scheme https://t.co/CWRUg53PTI According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Patrice Runner, 57, a Canadian and French citizen, operated a mass-mailing fraud scheme from 1994 through November…

— E Kelly Taylor (@ekellytaylor) June 16, 2023

One letter in 2014 told the recipient that life “was going to take a turn for the better” but in order to find out more, they had to pay $37.50, according to The Washington Post.

“All you have to do to see your life change is grasp the hand of friendship we are holding out to you,” another letter claimed, but that friendship had a starting price of $50, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the media outlet.

The scheme was slick and convincing. The letters appeared to be personalized with handwritten annotations and personal details about the recipients. The information about those who were scammed was allegedly purchased from data brokers. According to the New York Post, most of the letters were almost identical and were mass-produced so that the scammers could mail out tens of thousands of them each week.

Runner’s favored target was the elderly who were suffering from dementia or those who were struggling financially. He reportedly rented and traded mailing lists with other fraudsters.

Patrice Runner convicted in decades-long, $175 million psychic scheme – The Washington Post https://t.co/U9iqZECvk0

— NiQole (@NiQole1776) June 22, 2023

Once a victim fell for the scam, they were inundated with hundreds of “personalized” letters that asked for money to cover additional services and guidance from European psychic Maria Duval. Some victims forked over thousands of dollars through the scheme, according to the DOJ. Though Duval’s name was used, she was not involved in the fraud.

Runner was the point man for the scheme, running his operation out of Canada. The fraud targeted people in at least a dozen countries. He utilized dozens of shell companies to cover his tracks while he lived all over the world including Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and Spain.

He wound up being extradited from Spain to the US in December 2020 on an 18-count indictment. A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York found him guilty of 14 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and related crimes. Runner faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count which adds up to 280 years. He will be sentenced at a later date.

“For over 20 years, Patrice Runner managed a predatory scheme that targeted older Americans by mailing personalized letters to millions of victims purporting to be from a world-renowned psychic. [The] verdict should have come as no surprise to Mr. Runner,” Inspector in Charge Chris Nielsen of the Postal Inspection Service’s Philadelphia Division stated according to the New York Post.

I feel that this fraud case is like a microcosm of the relationship between the general public and the mass media in the existing society. Amen

— Takayuki KOHNO (@clown_sonnet66) June 21, 2023

The scheme was brought to an end by the DOJ in 2016 in the United States and Canada by banning Infogest Direct Marketing and its employees from using the US Postal Service to send materials “on behalf of any psychics, clairvoyants or astrologers.”

“To line their own pockets, the defendants preyed upon the superstition and desperation of millions of vulnerable Americans,” US Attorney Robert Capers for the Eastern District of New York noted at the time.

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