A Columbus man has pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to launder more than $1 million in proceeds from a business email compromise scam that targeted a health care provider during the COVID-19 pandemic. Benjamin Alexander, identified in court-related reporting as either 42 or 43 years old, admitted to receiving and laundering the money through a bank account tied to a cleaning company he controlled.
According to 10TV, Alexander pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering, a charge the U.S. Attorney's Office says stemmed from a scheme built around fraudulent payment instructions. The U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Ohio confirms he admitted in federal court to receiving and laundering more than $1 million in scam proceeds. The case centers on a 2020 contract for personal protective equipment supplied to a health care provider in the early months of the pandemic.
How the Scam Payments Were Redirected
Court evidence, as detailed by Spectrum News 1, shows that in June 2020 the health care provider's employees began receiving emails that appeared to come from its contracted safety-equipment supplier. Those emails instructed staff to send payments to a new bank account — one that was, in fact, controlled by Alexander. The account was held in the name of BOA Building Maintenance and Cleaning Services LLC, a business Alexander had established in 2019, according to the same report.
Four separate transfers tied to the scheme landed in that account, totaling around $1.1 million, the outlet reported. Once the money arrived, Alexander withdrew it in a variety of ways — official checks, cash withdrawals, ACH payments and other transactions, per the reporting from 10TV. The money-laundering conspiracy is said to have occurred between June and October 2020, and a federal grand jury indicted Alexander in July 2025.
What Alexander Could Face at Sentencing
Conspiracy to commit money laundering under federal law carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1956, a person convicted of conspiring to commit an offense defined under that statute is subject to the same penalties as the underlying laundering offense itself.
Alexander's case is not an isolated one. In a separate case out of Mississippi, an Ohio man was sentenced to more than four years in prison and ordered to pay over $547,000 in restitution for wire fraud and money laundering tied to business email compromise scams that hit companies across the country, according to the FBI. In another case tracked by the bureau's Cleveland field office, a federal jury convicted two men and a woman in an international email-hacking scheme that defrauded more than 1,000 victims out of roughly $215 million across 47 states and 19 countries, with 25 defendants convicted in total.
A Growing Pattern Nationwide
Federal officials have flagged business email compromise as a persistent and costly category of fraud. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center noted in its 2024 annual report that most Financial Fraud Kill Chain incidents initiated by its Rapid Assembly Team involve business email compromise. The bureau has also pointed to broader anti-fraud efforts, including its Operation Level Up initiative targeting cryptocurrency investment scams, which it says has reduced potential losses by more than $500 million since 2024.
The identities of the health care provider and the legitimate safety-equipment supplier whose name was allegedly spoofed in the scheme have not been disclosed in available court reporting. It also remains unverified whether any of the laundered funds have been recovered or whether additional defendants have been charged in connection with the scheme.
