WEST VIRGINIA DEFENDANTS CHARGED WITH WIRE FRAUD,
OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE FOR FALSELY CLAIMING TO "FIX" CASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray of the Criminal Division and Kenneth T. McCabe, Special Agent in Charge of the Pittsburgh Division of the FBI, announced today that two men, one acting as a criminal defense lawyer and the other as his paralegal, were indicted today by a federal grand jury in West Virginia for scheming to bilk money from a defendant in a separate federal criminal case.

FBI agents arrested Carl R. Mapel, Jr., and Mark Anthony Reynolds on March 25, 2004, and they have each been detained as a flight risk by the United States District Court since their preliminary and detention hearings on March 30, 2004. The indictment charges them jointly with aiding and abetting each other in two counts of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.

According to the indictment, Mapel appeared last year in federal court in the Southern District of West Virginia as a criminal defense attorney, though he is actually not an active member of the bar. The indictment further alleges that Mapel and Reynolds made false statements to the defendant in the underlying case concerning that defendant’s upcoming sentencing on a criminal matter. According to the indictment, Mapel and Reynolds falsely represented that they could purchase leniency for the defendant through a political party and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

If convicted, Mapel and Reynolds could face up to 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud charges, and 10 years in prison on the obstruction of justice charge. Defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia is recused from this case, in which the government is represented from Washington, D.C., by Trial Attorneys Richard C. Pilger and Shaun M. Palmer of the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice, headed by Section Chief Noel L. Hillman. The investigation is being handled by the Charleston, West Virginia Resident Agency of the FBI.

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04-258