El Dorado County man sentenced for bilking families of millions in investment fraud scheme

A former El Dorado County resident was sentenced Thursday to four years and nine months in prison and ordered to pay $2.8 million in restitution, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

Daniel Chartraw, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr., after he pled guilty to wire fraud on Jan. 24, 2013. Many victims submitted letters discussing the impact of Chartraw’s fraud on their finances and their families, according to a news release.

Judge England, in sentencing the defendant, referred to these letters and stated that “these are very traumatic crimes” and that the “problem is not only loss of money but also loss of trust.”

According to court documents, between January 1, 2007, and November 31, 2011, Chartraw defrauded many investors through false representations regarding a variety of investments, including investments in mines, mining and refinery equipment, oil commodities, precious metals concentrate, and multimillion-dollar certificates of deposit.

In one instance, Chartraw stole $1 million by fraudulently posing as an owner and manager of a company selling “dore” bars, which Chartraw claimed contained precious metals.

Chartraw arranged for an investor to tour the company and managed to limit the investor’s interaction with the company’s true owners and prevent discovery of the scheme. When the investor placed $1 million into an escrow account for the purchase of the dore bars, Chartraw used a forged letter to get the escrow company to send the money to accounts he and others controlled.

This case was the product of an investigation by the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Michael D. Anderson prosecuted the case, and Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Khasigian prosecuted the forfeiture of Chartraw’s assets.