Rose Marks

Rose Marks (born ) is the American matriarch of a family of fraudulent psychics convicted of federal crimes in 2013 in Florida. Marks and members of her extended family operated multiple storefront businesses, four in Broward County, Florida one of which was in Fort Lauderdale, named "Astrology Life" and one in Manhattan on W. 58th Street near Central Park. They told vulnerable clients that the only solution to their problems was to give the purported psychics money. Prior to this case there was doubt that a psychic could be criminally charged. Jurors were told that fortune-telling is constitutionally protected free speech, but federal prosecutors contended Marks engaged in fraud by promising to keep clients money safe, "cleanse" it and return it when she had no intention of returning it. The case drew widespread coverage. Charles Stack, a retired Fort Lauderdale police detective, said the case and the ensuing publicity brought attention to predatory and fraudulent fortune tellers. The family amassed a fortune estimated at between $25 and $40 million. Defense attorney Fred Schwartz said the federal government seized Marks' family assets including cars, motorcycles, a boat, gold, jewelry and a home near the Intracoastal Waterway. In 2014, Marks was sentenced over 10 years in prison for defrauding clients of her family's fortune-telling businesses out of more than $17.8 million.

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