Men Get Prison In $300M Magazine Fraud Scheme

MINNEAPOLIS – Two men were sentenced to prison for their separate roles in a $300 million nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that targeted elderly and vulnerable victims, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced Tuesday.

Anthony Eugene Moulder and Abdou-Rahmane Diallo were sentenced Monday to 120 months and 90 months in prison, respectively.

Moulder pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud on Jan. 13, 2023.

Diallo pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud on March 4, 2024.

Anthony Eugene Moulder

According to federal prosecutors, Moulder, 63, of Fort Myers ran Florida-based companies involved in fraudulent 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 of current magazine subscribers, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, authorities said.

Moulder’s sales teams used the list and employed deceptive sales scripts to “induce victims into making large or repeat payments” to Moulder’s companies for unwanted magazine subscriptions, prosecutors said.

Moulder and his companies defrauded thousands of victims across the U.S. out of approximately $86,589,272, according to investigators.

Abdou-Rahmane Diallo

Meanwhile, Diallo, 36, of Montreal, Quebec, was a co-owner and operator of Readers Services, a Canadian-based company that carried out a telemarking fraud scheme, authorities said.

From 2011 through 2020, Diallo targeted people previously been victimized by fraudulent magazine companies and were being billed by one or more fraudulent magazine companies on an ongoing basis, according to investigators.

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

In reality, the victims did not owe Diallo or his company any money, and Diallo had no power or ability to cancel the victims’ existing magazine subscriptions or any outstanding balances, according to authorities.

Diallo and other participants in his scheme defrauded more than 20,000 victims out of approximately $30 million, investigators said.