A Golden man was sentenced to five years in federal prison this month for masterminding a $300 million, nationwide telemarketing scheme peddling fake magazine subscriptions.
Henry Aragon, 54, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and tax evasion in July 2022 in connection with the scam that targeted more than 150,000 people, including older adults and others vulnerable to fraud, according to federal prosecutors and court records.
Aragon and co-defendants operated dozens of fraudulent magazine sales companies across the United States and Canada that duped victims into making large and ongoing payments for magazines, prosecutors said in a news release.
While claiming to offer customers a discount on their subscriptions, the companies had no relationship with the magazines.
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That didn’t stop Aragon and others from collecting more than $19 million from thousands of victims, some of whom were burdened with several phony subscriptions at once.
Aragon also avoided paying taxes on his earnings from the scheme.
“By evading his tax liability, Aragon unfairly shifted the tax burden to honest American taxpayers to fund vital services such as education and infrastructure,” Tom Demeo of the IRS Criminal Investigation Denver Field Office said in the release.
In addition to his federal prison term, Aragon will serve two years of supervised release and will be required to pay $19,051,667 in restitution to his victims and $1,490,011 to the IRS.
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