OXFORD, Miss. (WJTV) – An Ohio man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for committing wire fraud and money laundering in connection with scamming companies in Mississippi and throughout the country.

Gabriel Waters, 54, of Chillicothe, Ohio, was also ordered to pay more than $547,000 in restitution.

According to court documents, Waters was involved in a wire fraud and money laundering scheme where fraudsters spoofed email accounts which imitated corporate email accounts of employees who control company finances at victim companies.

Prosecutors said the fraudsters bought domain names that looked very similar to the legitimate domain names owned by the victim businesses. They used those imitation email accounts to direct employees, customers, or partners of a victim company to send money to a bank account controlled by the fraudsters. The fraudsters directed an employee to wire funds under the disguise of legitimate business transactions.

According to investigators, Waters was crucial to the scheme by setting up bank accounts in the U.S., receiving money directly from the victims, and laundering the money around to different accounts before finally converting it to cryptocurrency to send overseas to the emailing fraudsters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated the case.