Grand jury charges Columbus man with money laundering $1M in business email scam proceeds

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Federal agents arrested a Columbus man Tuesday on charges alleging he received and laundered more than $1 million in proceeds of a business email compromise scam.

A federal grand jury charged Benjamin O. Alexander, 42, with 29 counts of money laundering crimes.

According to the indictment, Alexander laundered proceeds from a scheme related to a contract for personal protective equipment (PPE) for a health-care provider in response to COVID-19. In June 2020, workers at the health-care provider received email messages purporting to be from the contracted safety-equipment supplier and requesting payments be sent to a new bank account.

It is alleged that the new bank account where the health-care provider was directed to send payments was one controlled by Alexander in the name of a business he established in April 2019 called BOA Building Maintenance and Cleaning Services LLC.

As a result of the business email fraud scheme, four ACH transfers were sent to Alexander's bank account totaling approximately $1.1 million.

Alexander then allegedly made multiple financial transactions to conceal the source of the money.

Conspiring to commit money laundering and committing concealment money laundering are both crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Monetary transaction money laundering carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Kelly A. Norris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; and Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) announced the charges. Assistant United States Attorney Peter K. Glenn-Applegate is representing the United States in this case.

An indictment merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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