Charles H. Riel Engaged In a Four-Year Scheme To Defraud
Investors
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Charles H. Riel, age 60, of Clay, New
York, pled guilty today to mail fraud and money laundering charges for his role
in a fraudulent investment scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars,
announced United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith, James Hendricks, Special
Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), and Jonathan D. Larsen, Special Agent in Charge of the
Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York Field
Division.
In his plea agreement, Riel admitted that he was the
founder, principal member, and officer of REinvest, LLC, a New York limited
liability company based in Clay. From
June 2010, through May 2014, Riel provided false, fraudulent, and misleading
information about REinvest, LLC, including historical rates of return on
supposed REinvest LLC investments and fictitious testimonials touting the
financial successes of non-existent REinvest, LLC investors. As part of his
guilty plea, Riel further admitted that he collected approximately $285,000
from a total of five investors, all of whom had received false and fraudulent
information regarding the nature of Riel’s business and how their funds would
be utilized. Riel used a substantial
portion of the funds received from investors to pay for his own personal living
expenses rather than investing the funds in ways that could result in a
legitimate return on the investments. He
also used money from subsequent investors to pay back a portion of the
investment of an earlier investor.
As part of his plea agreement, the defendant agreed to pay
restitution to his victims, and to forfeit $197,500.00 to the United States.
Sentencing is scheduled for September 5, 2019, before the
Senior District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. in Syracuse. For his conviction
for mail fraud, Riel faces up to 20 years in prison, a maximum fine of
$250,000, and up to 3 years of post-imprisonment supervised release. For his conviction for money laundering, he
faces up to 10 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to 3 years
of post-imprisonment supervised release.
A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular
statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing
Guidelines, and other factors.
This case was investigated by IRS-CI and the FBI, and is
being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicolas Commandeur and Michael D.
Gadarian.
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