On September 17, 2025, the Internal Revenue Service announced that Craig Clayton, the owner of Rhode Island-based Rochart Consulting, was sentenced to four years in prison for allegedly laundering the proceeds of internet fraud schemes on behalf of certain foreign-based clients and obstructing a federal investigation into the money laundering scheme. The sentence was imposed just months after he pleaded guilty in May 2025 to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of obstruction of justice. According to federal prosecutors, Clayton used Rochart Consulting as a front to launder more than $35 million for his clients. In addition to four years in prison, he was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution. The court also ordered Clayton to forfeit $96,000 and his interest in other property linked to the crime.
According to the court documents, from 2019 to 2021, Clayton conspired with others to use Rochart, an accounting and “virtual CFO” business, to engage in a concealment money laundering scheme in which he opened dozens of bank accounts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the names of numerous U.S. shell companies established with no legitimate business purpose. He allegedly used these accounts to launder the proceeds of various fraudulent schemes, including romance scams and elder fraud, for certain foreign-based clients. In furtherance of the scheme, he also allegedly instructed these clients on how to structure deposits, draft wire memos and create false business documents in order to avoid detection by law enforcement officials and bank regulators. In 2020, he allegedly admitted in an email to an unnamed co-conspirator that he knew his activity was illegal and that his co-conspirators were also subject to criminal charges for being “money mules complicit in [Rochart’s clients’] offenses.”
Federal prosecutors also claimed that when banks and law enforcement launched investigations into Clayton, Rochart and its clients, Clayton falsely stated, among other things, that the shell companies he established were legitimate businesses. In a subsequent interview with federal agents during the course of a Grand Jury investigation, Clayton also allegedly “attempted to obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding by making several false statements about the money laundering scheme.”
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