Two men sentenced to prison for role in $300M telemarketing scheme

Two men are facing more than seven years in prison after their part in a $300 million nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that targeted elderly and vulnerable victims, including victims in Minnesota.

Anthony Eugene Moulder, 63, and Abdou-Rahmane Diallo, 36, were sentenced yesterday to ten years and seven-and-a-half years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the telemarketing fraud. It comes after a case against them was brought by the U.S. Postal Service, other federal authorities, and the Minnesota Attorney General's Office.

According to court documents, Moulder owned and operated several Florida-based companies involved in fake magazine sales, including Gulf Coast Readers Inc., ARCO Media Inc., KMK Magazines Inc., and Leisure Time Resources Inc.

From 2008 through 2020, Moulder purchased lists containing information about consumers who had already received magazines from other companies.

He would then provide the lists to his sales teams and make them use deceptive sales scripts to induce victims into making large or repeat payments to Moulder’s companies for unwanted magazine subscriptions.

Moulder and his companies defrauded thousands of victims across the U.S. out of more than $86 million.

Diallo was a co-owner and operator of Readers Services, a Canadian-based company that targeted people who fraudulent magazine companies had previously victimized.

He would find people being billed by one or more fraudulent magazine companies to falsely promote his own company with promises of being able to cancel their unwanted magazine subscriptions.

Diallo pretended to be from the “magazine cancellation department” and offered to pay off the victims’ “outstanding balance," canceling their existing magazine subscriptions in exchange for a large, lump-sum payment.

As a result of this plot, Diallo defrauded more than 20,000 victims out of approximately $30 million.

On January 13 last year, Moulder pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and Diallo pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud on March 4.

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