A former Montreal resident was sentenced earlier this week to 10 years behind bars in a federal penitentiary in the United States for a decades-long fraud.
The US Department of Justice says Patrice Runner, 57, stole more than US$175 million from 1.3 million people in the United States between 1994 and 2014.
A federal court in New York convicted Mr. Runner of 14 counts, including mail fraud and wire fraud, in June 2023.
Mr. Runner, a Canadian and French citizen, defrauded his victims by sending them letters promising that psychics would help them become rich and happy in exchange for a sum of money, the US Department of Justice said Monday in A press release.
In their sentencing recommendation, prosecutors said that on average, Mr. Runner “defrauded more than 7,000 victims per week.” Seven thousand victims would be huge for any case – but for Mr. Runner, that was only seven days of work over more than 20 years.”
“He didn’t do anything else; he has no other skills. Mr. Runner was a full-time fraudster for decades. »
Mr. Runner called on a Montreal company to send the letters throughout the United States and Canada. Each purported to be a personal communication from “so-called ‘psychics’ Maria Duval and Patrick Guérin,” according to the Justice Department. However, no suspected psychics were involved in the operation and the personalized letters were almost identical forms sent to people whose names had been obtained from mailing lists created by other scammers.
People who sent money received dozens more letters offering to sell them more services and items with supposed magical powers.
Prosecutors had sought a 30-year prison sentence for Mr. Runner, a former Montreal resident who ran the project from several countries before being arrested in Spain, from where he was extradited to the United States in 2020.
“Mr. Runner took full advantage of his victims and their desperation, millions of times over. Each of these more than six million payments hides someone asking for help that never came and that Mr. Runner didn’t even try to provide. Mr. Runner promised his victims ease, magical answers in exchange for money, and provided nothing in return except a cheap, fake trinket,” prosecutors wrote.
Defense
Patrice Runner’s defense lawyer, James Darrow, had asked for a five-year prison sentence, arguing that many of his client’s “buyers” did not feel they had been scammed and that those who did paid had not lost more than $40 for the vast majority.
“The government has described Patrice Runner as greedy, cynical and heartless. He is none of those things,” Mr. Darrow, an assistant federal defender, wrote in his sentencing recommendation.
“Certainly, the jury determined that much of his astrological work was fraudulent. But he also determined that many things were not. Hundreds of thousands of customers, hoping for magic, came to Patrice Runner for astrological goods and services. Whatever anyone says about Mr. Runner’s motivations, it is indisputable that he spent years trying to help them believe that they were getting exactly what they wanted,” Mr. Darrow wrote.
The defense attorney says Mr. Runner, who grew up in an abusive home, used the money to provide his children with the stability and security he never had. Mr. Darrow was also seeking leniency due to conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, where Mr. Runner has been held for more than three years. Mr. Darrow said Mr. Runner was ill, deprived of medical care, held in an environment bordering on solitary confinement and deprived of meaningful participation in his own defense.
Four of Patrice Runner’s co-conspirators – two Canadians and two Americans – pleaded guilty in 2018. Only one was convicted. Sherry Gore, 73, who prosecutors say was successful in extracting extra money from victims, received two years of probation and a $1,000 fine in 2018.
Four people who ran PacNet Services, a British Columbia-based payment processing company used by Mr. Runner and potentially other scammers, have been indicted in the state of Nevada by U.S. federal prosecutors, who are seeking their extradition from Canada.