A Blaine businessman concocted a scheme to defraud hundreds of job seekers out of roughly $600,000 with false promises of work selling home security or water filtration systems.
Feds: Blaine businessman cheated hundreds of job seekers out of roughly $600,000
He made false promises of work selling home security or water filtration systems, according to the indictment.
June 14, 2023 at 3:10PM
Charles E. Fields, 43, was indicted Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on five counts of wire fraud in connection with cheating at least 250 people out of several thousands of dollars each.
The employment opportunities that Fields pitched were made through his businesses, among them HomeSoft Systems Inc., WaterTek Marketing Corp., Water Innovations Group, Inc., WIG Holdings Corp., Mile High H20 Corp. and the New H20.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Fields declined to comment other than to say he has hired Joe Friedberg as his attorney. Friedberg said he has yet to see the indictment and declined to comment. Fields is due to appear in court on June 30.
From 2015 to 2020, according to the indictment, Fields required applicants to pay a deposit ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 before hiring them to sell home security products and various models of water machines and filtration systems made by an international company that remained anonymous in the indictment.
A KARE 11 television report in 2019 identified that company as Enagic, based in the Los Angeles area.
Fields enticed people around the country to apply by promising but not delivering training, sales leads and $6,000 in guaranteed monthly profit.
Fields kept his victims at bay with bogus excuses about why his end of the deal was not being kept. At times, he would change the names of his companies in order to keep his scheme alive and "to avoid any negative association with previous consumer complaints."
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