A Denver man received a five-year prison term for his masterminding of a $300 million telemarketing fraud scheme, reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 54-year-old Henry Aragon, from Golden, Colorado, operated across the nation, falsely peddling magazine subscriptions to over 150,000 individuals for more than a decade. Following his sentence, Aragon will also have two years of supervised release and is mandated to compensate his victims and the IRS a total of over $20.5 million in restitution.
The intricate web of deceit spun by Aragon involved numerous bogus magazine sales companies, each responsible for deploying a variety of misleading sales pitches over the phone to unsuspecting consumers. Many of his fraud’s targets were older people, a demographic known to be vulnerable to such scams. According to
court documents
, these companies utilized fraudulent “renewal” scripts to coerce payments, insinuating that they were offering lower rates on pre-existing magazine subscriptions. The victims, unfortunately, ended up with multiple, often expensive, and new magazine subscriptions instead.
Last Thursday, Aragon was sentenced by John R. Tunheim at the U.S. District Court. His guilty plea on July 5, 2022, encompassed charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as tax evasion. As reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the fraudulent scheme managed to accumulate upwards of $19 million from the pockets of victims under the guise of subscription savings.
Apart from the fraudulent telemarketing, Aragon also dodged paying taxes on the proceeds from his operation. “By evading his tax liability, Aragon unfairly shifted the tax burden to honest American taxpayers to fund vital services such as education and infrastructure,” said Tom Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge for the IRS Criminal Investigation in Denver. The investigation was conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, with assistance from other federal bodies. These agencies remain vigilant in their efforts to root out not only large-scale fraud but also tax evasion, committing to ensuring that individuals like Aragon is brought to justice for their actions against the public trust.
The collaborative effort in prosecuting Aragon was handled by an array of assistant U.S. Attorneys including Harry M. Jacobs, Joseph H. Thompson, Matthew S. Ebert, Melinda A. Williams, and Garrett S. Fields. This case serves as a stark reminder of the vigilance required by both consumers and law enforcement agencies to protect against complex, predatory fraud operations that can have far-reaching impacts across the nation.
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