Blaine man gets 54 months in prison for defrauding hundreds of jobseekers in $600K scheme
BLAINE, Minn. — A Blaine man has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after he devised a scheme to defraud hundreds of jobseekers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A judge gave Charles Fields a 54-month sentence Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota said. Fields pleaded guilty to wire fraud last September.
According to court documents, Fields was the owner and operator of multiple businesses where he pitched employment opportunities to prospective workers across the country. Fields would claim he'd hire job applicants provided they pay him anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000, after which he'd hire them as sales contractors.
However, the employment opportunities never materialized and Fields "lulled his victims with bogus excuses" for not fulfilling his promises, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
In total, Fields defrauded almost 200 victims out of at least $600,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. As part of his sentence, he was also ordered to pay $598,893.71 in restitution and will spend three years on supervised release after his prison stay.
