Two men have been delivered substantial prison sentences for their involvement in an extensive telemarketing fraud scheme that swindled elders out of millions, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. The convicts, Anthony Eugene Moulder and Abdou-Rahmane Diallo orchestrated separate but parallel schemes to defraud victims across the nation through deceptive magazine sales tactics.
Florida resident Moulder, 63, misused his position as the head of several companies, purchasing lists containing information about consumers—many of whom were elderly and susceptible—and then duped them into excessive payments for magazine subscriptions they neither needed nor wanted. According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Moulder's calculated racket resulted in an astounding $86.5 million in losses for the victims.
The second perpetrator, Diallo, 36, of Montreal, co-owned Readers Services in Canada and similarly exploited victims who had previously been targeted by fraudulent magazine companies. Pretending to help these individuals by offering to cancel their non-existent dues, Diallo instead lured them into making lump-sum payments, defrauding more than 20,000 people of roughly $30 million.
The investigation, a collaborative effort by the United States Postal Inspection Service, FBI, and other agencies, culminated in Moulder and Diallo facing justice. On January 13, 2023, Moulder pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and on March 4, 2024, Diallo admitted to two counts of wire fraud. In U.S. District Court, per a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Judge John R. Tunheim sentenced both men, handing Moulder 120 months and Diallo, 90 months behind bars.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Harry M. Jacobs and Garrett S. Fields, who prosecuted the cases, highlighted the collaboration between different agencies that led to the resolution of this expansive fraudulent operation.
