Guilty Plea Ends $30 Million Fraud Trial in Minnesota Courtroom
Minneapolis, MN (KROC-AM News) - Just as his trial was getting underway at the Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis, a Canadian man today entered guilty pleas to charges connected to a $30 million nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme.
The US Attorney for Minnesota says 36-year-old Abdou Diallo was a co-owner of a company known as Readers Services that re-victimized people who had already been victimized by fraudulent magazine companies that were billing them for unwanted magazine subscriptions. Court documents say Diallo and other participants in his fraud scheme took approximately $30 million from more than 20,000 victims, many of them elderly and vulnerable, across the US.
The charges against him alleged that Diallo would pretend to be from the "magazine cancellation department" and would offer to pay off the victims' outstanding balances and cancel their existing magazine subscriptions for a large, lump sum payment. Federal prosecutors say, in reality, the victims did not owe him or his company any money and he had no power or ability to cancel any subscriptions or pay off any outstanding balances.
He entered guilty pleas today to two counts of wire fraud. Court officials say the sentencing hearing for the Montréal man has been scheduled on June 5.
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Gallery Credit: Samm Adams
