CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man operated a half-million dollar fraud ring linked to postage stamps, federal prosecutors said.
Jimmy Lee Williams is accused of recruiting coaches and business owners who were down on their luck to help him in the scheme.
Eyewitness News reporter Blake Hanson was in Charlotte's federal courthouse Wednesday morning for Williams' first appearance in front of a judge.
A judge read the 29 count indictment against Williams that would carry a maximum penalty of more than
100 years.
The judge read the charges against Williams and there was a brief delay as Williams repeated, ""I don't understand (any) of these charges."
His federal defender told the judge Williams said he was a sovereign citizen.
Williams allegedly played a role in various schemes including getting fraudulent checks to buy stamps then resell them on websites, according to court documents.
He had 16 accomplices to help in the schemes and in some cases people down on their luck including a man who ran a local cleaning business, prosecutors said.
Another accomplice was a youth football coach in Concord who was in financial trouble.
Williams instructed him how to "conduct post office and bank fraud schemes," according to documents.
Williams nabbed $650,000 in the schemes, investigators said.
If convicted, he could owe millions in fines and spend a long time behind bars.
Williams will be back in court Monday then a judge will decide whether he will remain in jail or can bond out.
Prosecutors have not announced any charges for the accomplices in the schemes.
The man who supplied the fake checks, Ronald Carr, was charged last year in a related bank fraud case, attorneys said.
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