Canadian citizens Maria Thanos and Philip Lett managed the day-to-day operations of Infogest Direct Marketing, according to the documents. Infogest ran the North American arm of the scam, raking in more than $200 million from more than 1.4 million victims in the United States and Canada. Patrice Runner faces 18 counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Social media suggests he lives in Ibiza, Spain, and the Spanish government is now considering an extradition request by the United States, according to the DOJ. The criminal charges are the first brought by the US government against any of the scam's key players.

Source: CNN March 07, 2019 22:41 UTC