R.I. man arrested for allegedly using business to launder more than $35 million in fraud money

A Rhode Island man was arrested Thursday for allegedly using an accounting and “virtual CFO” business to launder tens of millions of dollars from internet fraud schemes. 

Prosecutors say Craig Clayton, 73, of Cranston, R.I., used about 80 bank accounts opened on behalf of 65 shell companies to launder more than $35 million in fraud proceeds. 

He is facing one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins. 

Since 2019, Clayton and others allegedly used his business, Rochart Consulting, as a front to launder fraudulently obtained money. Clayton founded dozens of shell companies in the U.S. during that time period. These companies were then used to open business bank accounts in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, according to Rollins’s office. 

The bank accounts were used to launder criminal proceeds for his clients in exchange for fees, prosecutors said. 

Clayton, while communicating with a business associate at Rochart, said that they were “money mules complicit in their [Rochart’s clients’] offenses.” While communicating with one of his clients, Clayton said he was concerned that his phone was being tapped by police, prosecutors said. 

Clayton allegedly worked to obtain “dirt” on a victim who had reported the fraud scheme so that he could “distract the police,” officials said. 

At some point during the investigation, an undercover officer posed as a potential Rochart client. Clayton allegedly told the officer that several of his clients were “fugitives from justice.”

Once banks and law enforcement agents began investigating Rochart, prosecutors say Clayton falsely told investigators and bank officials that his shell companies were legitimate businesses. Once Clayton learned that a federal grand jury was investigating him, Clayton allegedly attempted to obstruct the investigation by making several false statements to federal agents in an interview.

Five seizure warrants were also executed on Rochart bank accounts that held several hundred thousand dollars of alleged money laundering proceeds and on a Mercedes-Benz SUV that Clayton purchased. 

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