Rockford Man Sentenced to Three Years in Federal Prison for Mail Fraud

ROCKFORD — A Rockford man was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala for mail fraud. 

CHARLES R. (“CHUCK”) HANSEN, 63, a financial planner, was sentenced to three years in federal prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $739,705 in restitution. 

Hansen pleaded guilty to the charge on Sept. 12, 2017, and admitted that he schemed to defraud investors out of more than $700,000, using the mail to further his scheme.  According to the written plea agreement, between 1996 and 2014, Hansen operated financial planning and real estate companies, including Senior Securities of Rockford LLC and Chicago Wealth Partners LLC.  As part of his financial planning business, Hansen sold fixed annuities to retirement-age investors.  In 2008, Hansen began to encourage some individuals to whom Hansen had previously sold secure investments in fixed annuities to move their money to investments in Senior Securities and Chicago Wealth Partners, which Hansen told investors were real estate companies in which the investors could make a higher rate of return on their investment.  Hansen used the investments in those two companies to rehab and sell homes in the Rockford and Chicago areas. 

Hansen admitted that he did not explain the risky nature of that sort of investment and told investors that their investments would remain secure. Hansen further admitted that he entered into promissory notes with investors promising a high rate of return, and that he convinced investors to renew their promissory notes for additional terms.  At the time of the renewals, Hansen did not disclose to the investors that Senior Securities and Chicago Wealth Partners were failing and that he lacked sufficient funds to repay the investors the amounts owed to them pursuant to the original promissory notes. 

Hansen admitted that, as a result of his scheme, he caused investors to invest approximately $842,150 in Senior Securities and Chicago Wealth Partners, and that only $109,792 of that amount was returned to them, causing the investors to suffer losses totaling approximately $732,257.

The sentencing was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; William Hedrick, Acting Inspector-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago; and Tanya Solov, Director of the Illinois Securities Department of the Illinois Secretary of State.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret J. Schneider.