Patrice Runner, a Canadian fraudster, was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison for defrauding over $175 million from an estimated 1.3 million Americans. For two decades, Runner posed as a ‘psychic’ who would promise financial success and personal happiness if his marks sent him money through the mail.
“Patrice Runner’s extravagant lifestyle, borne on the backs of millions of older and vulnerable Americans, has come to an end,” U.S. postal inspector Chris Nielsen said. Responding to the 10-year sentence handed down in the Eastern District of New York, Nielsen said he believed it to be an “appropriate punishment.”
An American jury convicted Runner last June of 14 counts, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The jury also found the conman guilty of eight additional counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In his scheme, the conman would fraudulently pose as famous psychics Maria Duval and Patrick Guerin. Letters sent to his targets would claim they could “achieve great wealth and happiness with the psychic’s assistance, in exchange for payment of a fee.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Runner and his co-conspirators sent tens of thousands of such letters weekly.
The DOJ said in a press release announcing the sentencing decision that “some victims made dozens of payments in response to the fraudulent letters, losing thousands of dollars.”
United States government officials had Runner — who possesses both Canadian and French citizenship — extradited after his arrest in Ibiza, Spain, in 2020. Addressing the charges, the Runner claimed he did nothing illegal. “Maybe it’s not moral, maybe it’s bullshit,” he said, adding: “But it doesn’t mean it’s fraud.”
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