MARTINSBURG, W.Va. – The co-owner of Hearts2Heros has admitted to almost $300,000 in fraud while soliciting donations according to U.S. Attorney Bill Powell.
Hearts2Heros is a for-profit entity that allegedly was meant to support the military by creating and sending care packages to deployed service members. Company employees solicited contributions and misrepresented the organization as a charity.
Christopher T. Engle, 30, of Bunker Hill, has admitted to wire fraud in the amount of $2986,959.95 from residents in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
Engle has pled guilty today to a one count of wire fraud and faces a prison term of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.
“Using our brave military personnel who are deployed overseas as a prop for a fraud scheme is deplorable conduct. Such conduct also is detrimental to the work of many wonderful community organizations who genuinely support our military. Thanks to the work of the FBI and our prosecution team, the defendant’s greed will now be appropriately dealt with by the court at sentencing,” said Powell.