Also known as Abdou-Rahmane Diallo, Abdou Diallo, 34, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada co-owns and operates Readers Services and NP Readers Inc. Both companies are based in Canada.

From 2011 through 2020, Diallo and his co-conspirators provided lead lists and fraudulent sales scripts to their telemarketing employees for use in carrying out the fraud scheme, which targeted people who had previously been victimized by a fraudulent magazine sales scam. The victims had been tricked into signing up for different expensive magazine subscriptions that they neither wanted nor could afford.

Taking advantage of the victims’ desperation to make the magazine subscriptions stop, Diallo and his co-conspirators pretended to be from a 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. However, the victims did not owe the fraudsters or their companies any money. 

Ultimately, Diallo and his co-conspirators defrauded more than 20,000 victims across the United States out of approximately $30 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Many of the victims were elderly and vulnerable.

On March 30, 2022, Diallo was arrested at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, USA and made his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Becerra in the Southern District of Florida. He was charged with one count conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud and will be transported in custody to Minnesota, USA for further court proceedings.

Including Diallo, more than 60 have been charged for their roles in a $300 million fraud scheme that targeted more than 150,000 elderly and vulnerable victims. Only 37 defendants have pleaded guilty to their roles in the fraud scheme so far.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case with the help of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. Victims are asked to report suspected fraudulent activity to MagazineVictims@FBI.GOV or visit FBI.gov/MagazineVictims.