Leader of massive national telemarketing fraud pleads guilty to federal charges in Minnesota

A Kansas City-area man pleaded guilty Thursday to helping lead a massive telemarketing scheme that Minnesota federal prosecutors have called the nation's largest elder fraud conspiracy, with victims spanning the country.

Russell "Rusty" Rahm, 52, of Olathe, Kan., admitted to his role in a scheme involving 60 co-conspirators from across the United States and Canada that bilked about 183,000 victims —many of whom were elderly or otherwise vulnerable — out of $335 million.

The case, first charged in 2020, grew out of a 2016 Minnesota Attorney General's Office lawsuit against a Fridley man whose magazine subscription company was later ordered by a judge to pay $20 million.

https://www.startribune.com/leader-of-elder-fraud-telemarketing-conspiracy-pleads-guilty-to-federal-charges-in-minnesota/600234187/