A Fake Psychic.....As If There Are Real Ones....Who Schemed Old People Out Of $175,000,000 Has Been Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison
Nah, I'm a law abiding citizen and respect the due process, but the courts got this one more wrong than the OJ case. 10 years in prison for getting old people to pay him $175,000,000 for bullshit fortune telling?
Once payment had been made, the recipient would then receive dozens of additional letters, all seemingly personalized, requesting additional fees. They were also asked to mail back personal items, such as locks of hair, palm prints and photos – “to conduct additional personalized rituals and astrological services”, according to the indictment.
Look I'm not saying it's right. And I don't like the fact that he preyed on elderly people. But at the end of the day, if you're willing to pay a psychic to read your fortune or predict your future, you are the problem. And that's exactly what this guys argument was.
“Maybe it’s not moral, maybe it’s bullshit,” he said in an interview with the Walrus magazine. “But it doesn’t mean it’s fraud.”
He's right, no? Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe he was holding these grandmas and grandpas down at the old folks home, forcing them to write them checks for thousands of dollars in exchange for telling them the dates they were going to die, but if all he was doing was accepting cash in exchange for telling them he could predict the future, but not actually being able to predict the future, then what's the 10 years for?? If we're throwing this dude in the slammer for scamming people, I'd like to tip off the authorities to 3 places within a football field of our office:
Are we on the same page with this? All psychics are frauds, right? It's just this guy found a way to monetize his for $175,000,000. If anything, I'd say he's a better psychic than these old hags that read palms for minimum wage all day.
Turns out this guy might be a little bit more of a conman than I originally thought….
Runner has twice been found guilty of running scams by Canadian authorities. In 1991, a company held in Runner’s name was fined US$31,100 for falsely advertising the services of a clairvoyant who could predict winning lottery numbers. In 2000, a company under his name was fined US$362,000 by a Quebec court for misleading advertising about weight-loss products.
Okay, the winning lottery numbers gig might have been a little over zealous. Misleading weight-loss products seems par for the course though. Are they all not misleading? Seems like this guy is just smarter than people, not a 10 year in prison criminal.