BOSTON (AP) — A Rhode Island man has been charged with using his accounting and consulting businesses as a front to launder more than $35 million in internet fraud schemes.
Craig Clayton, 73, of Cranston, R.I., is accused of founding dozens of shell companies in the United States and using them to open business bank accounts in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts, said in a news release Thursday. He allegedly laundered the criminal proceeds for his clients in exchange for fees.
Clayton has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice.
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Prosecutors alleged that he opened about 80 bank accounts purportedly on behalf of 65 different companies.
In addition to his arrest, seizure warrants were executed on bank accounts holding several hundred thousand dollars of alleged money laundering proceeds and a Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle he bought, prosecutors said.
The man was scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston on Thursday afternoon on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice. A message seeking comment was left with his attorney.