SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Charles V. Stanley Jr., 63, of Southern California, was arrested on Wednesday in Los Angeles on a 15-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Sacramento charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud, as well as separate counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, Stanley was the owner and operator of a debt collection company called Creditor Specialty Service, Inc. (CSS) located in Acton, California and with agents throughout California and elsewhere. Various financial institutions and other companies contracted with CSS to collect debts. At Stanley’s direction, CSS employees collected money from the debtors but underreported the amounts they actually collected. Stanley diverted some of the unreported proceeds for his own personal spending and to pay other clients to whom CSS owed money. Stanley also continued to collect money from debtors of one financial institution even after that institution terminated its contract with CSS. Stanley also caused CSS to file lawsuits or settle with debtors without client authorization. It is alleged that because of Stanley’s conspiracies and schemes, CSS’s clients and debtors lost several millions of dollars.
Credit Unions based in Folsom, Sacramento and Bakersfield contracted with CSS to collect debts from some of its customers.
This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd A. Pickles is prosecuting the case.
If convicted, Stanley faces a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
