Peter Porcelli II, 55, of Oldsmar, Fla., was charged Wednesday with nine counts each of mail fraud and wire fraud in connection with the alleged telemarketing scheme, through which authorities say he defrauded or tried to dupe at least 165,000 Americans, many with poor credit histories.

Authorities say Porcelli and others who were not named in the indictment offered consumers a MasterCard credit card for a one-time processing fee ranging from $160 to $500. The schemers allegedly collected the fee from the bank accounts of tens of thousands of consumers.

Those charged the fee were sent a "benefits package" consisting of offers that usually were already available for free to the public, along with other promotional literature and general information on repairing credit, according to the indictment.

The mailing did not include a credit card but an "acceptance form" for what amounted to a prepaid card that, like debit cards, only allow purchases up to a set limit or up to the cash on deposit backing the card. A consumer could get that card for an additional $15 fee, though few actually submitted that money, the indictment alleges.

Porcelli, who also faces one fraud-related conspiracy count, has an unlisted home telephone number and could not be reached Thursday for comment.

His federal arraignment in Illinois has been set for April 5.

The U.S. government alleges that Porcelli carried out the scam through several of his Florida-based companies, including Bay Area Business Council Inc. and American Leisure Card Corp., over a 14-month span beginning in June 2001. He allegedly used call centers in Utah, Kansas, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Virginia, Florida and in other countries.

The alleged scam ended when the Federal Trade Commission sued Porcelli and others in August 2002 as part of a law enforcement sweep dubbed "Operation No-Credit."

In that civil lawsuit, a Chicago-based federal judge in 2004 sided with the commission and permanently barred Porcelli and other defendants from telemarketing and selling credit-related products. That order also required the defendants to pay more than $12 million in restitution.

Porcelli, who filed for bankruptcy in 2003, has insisted in a previous court affidavit that neither he nor his company did anything wrong, the St. Petersburg Times has reported. Porcelli maintained that his Bay Area Business Council sold vacations, that the debit cards simply were included in the package, and that consumers misunderstood the sales pitch, the newspaper said.

One of the defendants in the FTC case, Christopher Tomasulo, agreed in 2005 to a settlement with the FTC that bans him from selling credit-related products and misrepresenting anything to a consumer.

One mail fraud count and two of the wire fraud charges in this week's indictment each are punishable by up to 20 years in prison; the other counts carry a possible five-year prison term. Under all of the counts, Porcelli could be fined up to $250,000 if convicted.

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Federal Trade Commission, http://www.ftc.gov

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/politics/16953837.htm