Evergreen Reporter

A California resident, Charles Singleton, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison for his role in a money laundering conspiracy. The sentence was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna and delivered by U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo.

Singleton, aged 65 and hailing from Los Angeles, had previously entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. This charge stemmed from activities between September 2018 and August 2020, where Singleton and his associates laundered funds obtained through business email compromises—a type of wire fraud that targets high-value transactions.

The fraudulent scheme involved compromising legitimate email accounts via social engineering or computer intrusion techniques. This manipulation led employees or individuals involved in business transactions to unknowingly transfer funds into accounts controlled by the perpetrators.

Singleton managed several business bank accounts under company names he controlled, which received the illicit wire fraud proceeds. He and his conspirators then moved these funds across various accounts while sharing banking information among themselves. Additionally, Singleton executed at least one fraudulent contract involving a $70,000 wire transfer with an accomplice.

Apart from the prison sentence, Judge Arleo imposed three years of supervised release on Singleton. He was also ordered to forfeit over $1.1 million derived from the conspiracy and pay restitution amounting to $1,469,003 to victims.

The investigation was credited to special agents of the FBI's Woodland Park Office under Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly in Newark. Assistant U.S. Attorney Farhana C. Melo from the Economic Crimes Unit represented the government in this case.