LEXINGTON, KY — The U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky is reporting that, a Lexington, Ky., man, Charles E. Johnson, Jr., 62, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison on Friday, by Chief U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, for making materially false statements to the United States Probation Office and for failing to appear for a hearing while released on bond pending trial.
Johnson was serving a term of supervised release following convictions in the Eastern District of Virginia for securities fraud and witness tampering. Public records demonstrate that as part of his sentence for securities fraud, Johnson was ordered to pay more than $9 million in restitution to the victims of his crime.
According to his plea agreement, as a condition of that supervised release, Johnson was required to make sworn financial disclosures to the United States Probation Office fully disclosing assets he controlled, so that the Probation Office could determine resources available to repay victims of his earlier securities fraud.
On two separate sworn financial disclosures in 2021, Johnson intentionally concealed his control of a company bank account, which he used to pay more than $140,000 in personal expenses that year, instead reporting only that he earned $3,500 per month from the company. Johnson was released on bond pending trial for these false statements offenses. When the United States moved to revoke his bond due to unauthorized travel outside the Eastern District of Kentucky, Johnson fled to Las Vegas and failed to appear at a scheduled bond revocation hearing in April 2023. He was apprehended in Minnesota the following month.
In addition to his sentence for these crimes, Johnson was sentenced to another 6 months in prison for further violations of the conditions of his supervised release.
Under federal law, Johnson must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 3 years.
Carlton S. Shier IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Lesley Allison, Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service, Pittsburgh Field Office, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul McCaffrey.
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