MINNEAPOLIS — Charles Fields was a suburban dad who led an otherwise normal life. He is now sentenced to prison.
No one in Fields' family knew he spent five years scamming 200 people across the country out of $600,000. KARE 11 first exposed Fields in 2019. That prompted the FBI investigation.
At his sentencing hearing Tuesday, Fields explained how his business started out with honest intentions. But when he couldn't deliver on his promises, it turned into a Ponzi scheme as he started recruiting new victims to try and pay back others.
Fields lured people in with the promise of jobs selling water purifiers.
"There was a $5,000 guaranteed salary a month," said Jerry Cibley from Florida.
The catch? To land the job, people had to pay thousands of dollars up-front to buy a machine they could use in demonstrations. The victims never received the machines.
Using ever-changing company names from Watertek Marketing to Water Innovations Group and Mile High H20, the government says Charles Fields ripped off nearly 200 victims for almost $600,000.
"Yeah, it was terrible," said Joe LaCentra from New York.
Victims like LaCentra were drawn in by voice messages sent by Fields using phony names like David Mueller or Michael Brunn.
"We're not like some, you know, company in a garage that just created a website and said, 'Hey, send us money.' That's not what it is," Fields said in one message while using the name Michael Brunn.
"And he was so sincere and so earnest and so convincing that I said you know what, let me take a chance. Sometimes you just have to take that leap of faith," LaCentra said.
"I was dealing with 'Michael Brunn,'" David Maddox from Las Vegas said with a laugh in retrospect.
Maddox lost out on many opportunities because of Fields.
"It was the dream that got shattered," he said.
But Maddox was one of the lucky early victims who got paid back at the expense of victims like LaCentra.
"By the time he refunded me, he had already started different waves of people he was stealing from and even raised the price," Maddox said.
"I got taken for $5,500. And he was kind enough to give me $500 back maybe five years ago. And that was the end of that," LaCentra said.
The FBI raided Fields' house in Blaine after KARE 11 Investigates exposed Fields in 2019. Weeks after that, someone who found the story online reported Fields dumping shredded documents — checks, business records, and fake IDs in their garbage.
After pleading guilty to wire fraud last year, Fields learned his fate Tuesday in Minneapolis Federal Court.
Fields read a long apology to the judge, saying in part: "I will make no excuses for my criminal conduct and everything that led me here today. They didn't just lose money; they were betrayed by someone they trusted."
Fields said he started the business with honest intentions but when he couldn't deliver on his promises, he had to use money from new victims to pay back others demanded refunds — his way of "fixing" the situation.
Fields went on to say, "What I regret the most and hurts the most is that there was this moment I realized I couldn't fix it anymore. And I didn't have the strength to face up."
Judge David Doty then sentenced Fields to 4.5 years in prison.
"I'm not happy for anyone to go to prison, but under these circumstances I think he deserves it," LaCentra said in reaction.
"I usually don't celebrate someone's downfall, but when you've done so much bad to so many people, there needs to be repercussions," Maddox said.
"Hopefully four and a half years in prison, he'll be a better person. I hope!" LaCentra said.
Fields brought a check for $25,000 with him to court — his first restitution payment, which he will have to continue when he's released from prison.
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