Montrealer sentenced to 3 years for defrauding Americans out of $1.2 million

A file photo of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, June 9, 2023.

A Montreal man has been sentenced to three years in a United States federal prison for mail fraud totaling $1.2 million.

Michel Poirier, 60, pleaded guilty to the charge on March 20 and was sentenced on June 10, “following his extradition from Canada,” according to the Western District of Wisconsin’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Officials explained that between 2011 and May 2016, Poirier “orchestrated a mass marketing fraud scheme that targeted printing companies and consumers in the United States.”

He operated the business out of Canada, they noted, and victims included the Western District of Wisconsin, for a total of more than $1.2 million.

“Using aliases, Poirier contacted printing companies in the U.S., representing that he was working for direct mail companies looking for United States suppliers to handle mass mailings of brochures,” the Attorney’s Office said.

“After the victim printing companies incurred costs for printing and mailing the brochures, the companies received business checks from Poirier that drew on either closed accounts or accounts with insufficient funds.”

It added that when the companies requested alternative forms of payment, “Poirier stopped answering emails and telephone calls.”

Additionally, the brochures printed promoted weight loss products sold by Poirier and contained “numerous false statements and material omissions.”

These included testimonials from fictitious clients, statements of product authenticity from fake doctors and a false money-back guarantee.

“Consumers who received the brochures and purchased weight loss products were defrauded out of their money,” the officials stated.

At sentencing, Judge William M. Conley called the crime callous, noting that Poirier “failed to appreciate the financial and emotional harm to the victims.”

He explained that his three-year prison sentence was a result of the “elaborate scheme, which involved layers of misrepresentations for over seven years.”

The charge against Poirier was the result of an investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Reinhard prosecuted this case.