Canadian Man Pleads Guilty In $30M Magazine Subscription Scheme

MINNEAPOLIS — A Canadian man pleaded guilty on the first day of trial to his role in a $30 million nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that targeted elderly and vulnerable victims, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announced.

Abdou Diallo, 36, of Montreal, Quebec pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court before Judge to two counts of wire fraud. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 5.

The case against Diallo came out of a 2016 Minnesota Attorney General's Office lawsuit against the Fridley-based operator of Your Magazine Service, the Star Tribune reported.

Diallo defrauded more than 20,000 victims in the U.S. — many of whom were elderly and vulnerable — out of $30 million.

Diallo was a co-owner and operator of Readers Services, a Canadian-based company that carried out the telemarking fraud scheme, the FBI said.

From 2011 through 2020, Diallo and others in the scheme targeted people who had previously been victimized by fraudulent magazine companies and were currently being billed by one or more fraudulent magazine companies on an ongoing basis, according to authorities.

Diallo used this vulnerability to victimize them all over again through promises of being able to cancel their unwanted magazine subscriptions, the FBI said.

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, investigators said.

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 the FBI.