COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man has been arrested and indicted on federal money laundering charges after allegedly receiving more than $1 million through a business email compromise scheme targeting a health-care provider’s pandemic equipment contract, federal officials announced Friday.
Benjamin O. Alexander, 42, was charged with 29 counts of money laundering by a federal grand jury. The indictment accuses Alexander of funneling proceeds from a 2020 scam in which employees of a health-care provider were tricked into wiring money to a fraudulent bank account.
According to court documents, in June 2020, scammers impersonated a legitimate supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE) and instructed the health-care provider to reroute payments to a new account. That account, prosecutors say, belonged to a company controlled by Alexander, BOA Building Maintenance and Cleaning Services LLC, which he had registered in April 2019.
Authorities allege that four ACH transfers totaling approximately $1.1 million were sent to the account. Alexander then conducted multiple financial transactions to conceal the origin and nature of the funds.
He is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, concealment money laundering, and monetary transaction money laundering. The most serious of the charges carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter K. Glenn-Applegate following an investigation led by the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division.
