Three Minnesotans are among five women who have pleaded guilty to their roles in a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that swindled some 183,000 victims out of more than $335 million.
The five admitted Tuesday in U.S. District Court to participating in the sprawling operation that allegedly involved 60 people from across the United States and Canada who bilked victims, many of them elderly, over two decades.
Stacey L. Persons, 34, of Andover, along with sisters LeeAnn Garcia, 26, and Patrecia N. Shinn, 53, both of Cambridge, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Also entering guilty pleas Tuesday were Petra J. Laboy, of Cape Coral, Fla., and Angel Wilson, 42, of Oxford, Miss.
These dozens of cases represent the first time federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged people under the Senior Citizens Against Marketing Scams Act of 1994, which seeks to protect this age group from such a predatory scam.
The telemarketers in on the scheme followed scripts that told them to falsely claim the victims owed a large outstanding balance for magazine subscriptions, then tricked them by offering to pay off that balance in exchange for a lump-sum payment, according to indictments. The telemarketers frequently intimidated the victims by getting angry and making threats of legal action, the charges said.
Other scripts "were designed to induce consumers, through a series of lies and misrepresentations, into unwittingly signing up for expensive magazine subscriptions," the charges read.
According to Tuesday's guilty pleas and court documents:
From January 2010 through February 2020, Persons owned and operated General Subscription Services (GSS) and Amerimag Services, two Minnesota-based companies involved in fraudulent magazine sales. Her companies ran a telemarketing call center in Fridley.
