Anderson, S.C. Attorney Sentenced To Five Months In Prison On Obstruction Charges

Defendant Pleaded Guilty To Making False Statements To Federal Authorities During Investigation Of Client Indicted On Drug Conspiracy Charges

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Charles Anderson, an attorney in Anderson, S.C. and a former Anderson city council member, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs to serve five months in prison on obstruction charges, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. In addition to the prison term, Judge Childs also sentenced Anderson to three years of supervised release with the condition that the first five months of which Anderson will spend in home confinement with location monitoring. Anderson was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service or to complete a week-long community service project, as a condition of his supervised release. Anderson, 44, pleaded guilty in January 2014, to one count of making materially false statements to a department or agency of the United States.

Harry S. Sommers, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which oversees the Greenville District Office, and Brock D. Nicholson, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and the Carolinas join U.S. Attorney Tompkins in making today’s announcement.

According to information contained in court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, Anderson represented Lonnie Maddox on federal drug charges in South Carolina in connection with a large-scale cocaine conspiracy. Court records indicate that from February 21 to March 15, 2013, and on five different occasions, Anderson lied to federal agents concerning his knowledge of the whereabouts of two of Maddox’s vehicles. Maddox had purchased the vehicles with the illegal proceeds of his drug dealings. According to court records, Anderson knew where Maddox’s Yukon Denali sport utility vehicle was located, but repeatedly denied this fact when questioned by DEA and HSI agents. Court records also show that Anderson lied to law enforcement about his participation in moving the Denali, which law enforcement ultimately retrieved from Anderson’s law partner’s residence. According to today’s sentencing hearing, when law enforcement agents recovered the Denali, they found one kilo of cocaine hidden in a concealed compartment inside the vehicle.

In addition to the Denali, Anderson also initially lied to federal agents about possessing another one of Maddox’s vehicles, a classic Chevrolet Chevelle, court records indicate. And despite Anderson later admitting to law enforcement that he had in fact possessed the Chevelle, Anderson lied about the location from where he had obtained the vehicle.

Anderson, who remains free on bond, will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

The case was investigated jointly by the DEA and HSI. The prosecution is being handled for the government by Assistant U.S. Attorney J. George Guise of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte, upon recusal of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.