A former music producer who helped launch acts like Kenny G and Whitney Houston was sentenced today to 10 years behind bars for duping investors out of millions by claiming he had ties to West African diamond mines.
Prosecutors in federal court in Manhattan had sought more than two decades in prison for Charles Huggins in a scheme to steal more than USD 8 million from investors. They portrayed the 69-year-old defendant as a remorseless con man.
Huggins diverted investor money to one of his record labels and used it to pay for his USD 7,200-a-month Manhattan apartment, upkeep on a Mercedes Benz, restaurant tabs and clothes from expensive boutiques, according to court papers.
Huggins, of Edgewater, New Jersey, "acted out of pure greed, out of a desire to spend other people's hard-earned money on himself," said Assistant US Attorney Edward Imperatore.
The defense argued that the loss was really about USD 2.3 million, and that Huggins deserved no more than six years in prison.
US District Judge Sidney Stein agreed that evidence at Huggins' 2014 trial exposed how he had done grievous harm to honest investors. But he called the government's request for a sentence between 22 and 27 years excessive and instead imposed the 10-year term.
The judge had received several defense submissions supporting Huggins, including a video from his ex-wife, soul singer Melba Moore. Asked today if he wanted to speak for himself, Huggins stood briefly and responded, "Your honor, at this time I have nothing to say.
