Odenton Man to Serve 18 Months in Prison for Money Laundering

An Odenton man reportedly made $1.5 million from selling waste vegetable oil, some of it stolen, and will spend time in federal prison as a result.

Anthony Jean-Claude, 40, of Odenton pleaded guilty in February for money laundering. Last week, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Jean-Claude to 18 months in federal prison and three years of probation, according to The Baltimore Sun.

According to the plea agreement, in 2010 Jean-Claude and a partner teamed up to steal waste vegetable oil, which is recyclable, from restaurants in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, the newspaper reports. Jean-Claude stored both the stolen and legitimate waste oil in a warehouse in Middle River.

The newspaper says Jean-Claude opened an account that received $1.5 million from oil sales in 2012. The warehouse manager was told to use some of the money for warehouse operations and give the rest to Jean-Claude, according to the plea agreement.

As part of his sentence, Jean-Claude also owes that $1.5 million as restitution.