Boulder man sentenced for targeting millions in mass-mailing fraud schemes

Editor’s note: The photo has been changed to be more relevant to the contents of this article.

DENVER (KDVR) — A Boulder man was sentenced Monday to serve 10 years in prison for his part in a mass-mailing fraud scheme that took tens of millions of dollars out of hundreds of thousands of Americans’ pockets.

Robert Reger, 57, of Boulder, and David Lytle, 64, of Leawood, Kansas, were convicted by a federal jury following a two-week trial of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and numerous counts of substantive mail fraud and wire fraud. Reger was sentenced to 120 months (10 years) in prison, and Lytle was sentenced to 48 months (four years) in prison.

Evidence at trial showed that the victims whose data was sold led to harmful fraud, facilitated by the pair of defendants.

In one example the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado shared, the defendants sold nearly 100 lists of names and addresses to one client who used the data to defraud more than 218,000 victims of more than $23.7 million.

The prosecutors said that data shows many victims were repeatedly defrauded by the scheme, including more than 12,000 victims who were defrauded more than 20 times each. At trial, older adult victims and their adult children testified about the scam letters promised cash prizes.

U.S. Attorney’s Office: Over 10 years of fraud scheme

According to the evidence presented by attorneys at the trial, the pair were “key participants ” in an over a decade-long scheme that knowingly sold targeted lists of consumers and their addresses to perpetrators of fraud schemes that involved sending false and deceptive mail to consumers, especially older adults and vulnerable populations.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado reported that the crimes were committed by Reger and Lytle while they were working at Epsilon Data Management LLC, a data brokerage.

Prosecutors successfully argued at trial that the pair used transactional data collected from marketing clients to “predict new ‘responsive buyers’ using computer algorithms and a database of 100 million U.S. households.” They were then able to sell lists of consumers who were the most likely to respond to the fraudulent mailings.

“Far too often, we prosecute cases where criminals prey on the elderly and vulnerable,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Matt Kirsch for the District of Colorado, in a release. “This sentence demonstrates that those who exploit the most vulnerable in our society for financial gain will be prosecuted and held accountable for their despicable actions.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the pair’s former employer resolved its criminal liability through a deferred prosecution agreement in 2021. The company paid $150 million in penalties and victim compensation. The office said that victim compensation efforts have returned $122 million over 200,000 victims of fraud schemes for which Epsilon provided data.

The Justice Department has established the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-372-8311. The hotline is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET (8 a.m. to 4 p.m. MT). English, Spanish and other languages are available.

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