MINNEAPOLIS — Citing new evidence, federal prosecutors are recommending a five-year prison sentence for a Minnesota man who has admitted to defrauding people nationwide in a multi-year employment scam.
Blaine businessman Charles Fields was the subject of a KARE 11 Investigation in 2019.
The investigation revealed how Fields used ever-changing company names like Watertek Marketing, Water Innovations Group and The New H20 to recruit people around the country with Craigslist ads promising guaranteed salaries for selling water filtration systems.
The catch? To land the jobs, people had to pay thousands of dollars up-front to buy a machine they could use in demonstrations.
Victims told KARE 11 the water machines and the jobs never materialized – and they couldn’t get refunds.
In June 2023, Fields was indicted on federal wire fraud charges. He agreed to plead guilty in September.
Prosecutors say he scammed nearly 200 people out of almost $600,000 – offering phony business opportunities from phony companies while using phony names.
In recorded messages, Fields had assured job seekers his business was legitimate.
“We're not like some, you know, company in a garage that just created a website and said, 'Hey, send us money,” he said in one message obtained by KARE 11. “That's not what it is.”
But victims said that’s exactly what Fields was doing.
"To pretty much get your dreams shattered, it was devastating to me,” David Maddox of Nevada told KARE 11.
With the sentencing date for Fields approaching, prosecutors filed new information about the case.
Several months after the FBI searched Fields' home in Blaine, prosecutors revealed that someone 12 miles away reported shredded documents had been mysteriously discarded in his trash can.
Experts at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia meticulously pieced together the shredded records. Prosecutors said they discovered a victim's check, business records and a fake Minnesota driver’s license with a photo of Fields and one of the fake names he used.
Because of his crimes – and evidence of the attempted cover-up – prosecutors are recommending a 63-month sentence.
Defense attorney Joe Friedberg recommended Fields receive a sentence of 23 to 32 months .
A sentencing hearing is scheduled on April 16.
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