2 sent to prison for nationwide subscription scheme that preyed on elderly

Two men were sent to prison for their prominent roles in a magazine subscription scheme that bilked victims in Minnesota and every other state out of more than $300 million in what Minnesota federal prosecutors have called the nation’s largest elder fraud conspiracy.

Anthony Eugene Moulder, 63, of Fort Myers, Fla., was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to a 10-year term after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Co-conspirator Abdou-Rahmane Diallo, 36, of Montreal, was given a 7½-year sentence following his pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud.

The Justice Department said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota was best suited to investigate and shepherd the case, in part because a cluster of sham companies propped up as part of the scheme were located in the state.

According to court documents:

Moulder owned and operated several Florida-based companies involved in fraudulent magazine sales, including Gulf Coast Readers Inc., ARCO Media Inc., KMK Magazines Inc., and Leisure Time Resources Inc. From 2008 through 2020, Moulder bought lists that held the information of consumers — many of them elderly and vulnerable — who were already receiving magazines through other companies.

Moulder provided the lists to his sales teams and directed them to use deceptive sales scripts to induce victims into making large or repeat payments to Moulder’s companies for unwanted magazine subscriptions. Over the course of the scheme, Moulder and his companies defrauded thousands of victims across the United States out of more than $86 million.

In a court filing before sentencing, prosecutors said Moulder spent his ill-gotten gain to fund his “many trappings of wealth — nice house, fancy car, golf club memberships.”

Diallo, through his co-ownership and operation of Canada-based Readers Services, and others victimized people with false promises of being able to cancel unwanted magazine subscriptions. He posed as representing a “magazine cancellation department” and offered to pay off the victims’ “outstanding balance” and cancel existing magazine subscriptions in exchange for a large payment.

In reality, the victims did not owe Diallo or his company any money, and Diallo had no power or ability to cancel the victims’ existing magazine subscriptions or any outstanding balances. Diallo and the others defrauded more than 20,000 victims across the United States out of roughly $30 million.

A total of 64 people have pleaded or have been found guilty for their roles in the $335 million scheme. The Justice Department said the scam went on for at least 20 years and victimized more than 100,000 people across all 50 states. At least 200 of the victims were from Minnesota.

The case was the first time federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged a case under the Senior Citizens Against Marketing Scams Act of 1994.

Staff writer Stephen Montemayor contributed to this story.