Final Defendant Enters Plea Following Nationwide Telemarketing Fraud Scheme That Targeted Elders

A Texas man has pleaded guilty for his role in a multimillion dollar nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that targeted elderly and vulnerable victims. 

According to U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger, Jeremy Wade Wilson, (42) of Fort Worth, Texas, owned and operated Publishers Elite, a company involved in fraudulent magazine sales.

Officials say Wilson ran a telemarketing call center in Arlington, Texas, where Wilson provided his telemarketers with scripts containing fraudulent sales pitches for use in defrauding victim-consumers out of hundreds or even thousands of dollars from 2013 through 2019. Wilson knew that many of the consumers on these lists were elderly or otherwise susceptible to fraudulent and deceptive sales tactics, and directed his telemarketers to use lies and misrepresentations, to sign up victims for magazine subscription packages.

During the course of the scheme, Wilson and his company defrauded more than 14,000 victims across the United States, including more than 200 victims in Minnesota. Wilson’s company received more than $4.8 million from victims of his scheme.

Wilson is the last of 64 defendants charged in the nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme. He has pleaded guilty to six counts of wire fraud and SCAMS Act. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for September.