Owners Of Rocklin-Based Company Charged In $1M Money Laundering Scheme

ROCKLIN (CBS13) – The owners of a Rocklin-based company were indicted Thursday in a money laundering scheme involving over a million dollars, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said.

Daniel Stewart, 56, of Lincoln, and Luke Burroughs, 56, of Rocklin, were charged with money laundering and money laundering conspiracy.  The two face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 fines, according to a news release from Scott, of the U.S. Department of Justice Eastern District of California.

Stewart and Burroughs allegedly disguised personal expenses as business expenses and agreed to launder money for who they believed to be an interstate drug dealer when they realized they didn't generate enough expenses to offset their company's tax liability, officials said.

The owners allegedly wrote checks worth of up to $350,000 to perform renovations on their own personal properties.

Between March 2019 and October 2020, the two wrote company checks totaling over $1 million to help the dealer launder his money, the news release said. What Burroughs and Stewart later learned was that the drug dealer was an undercover law enforcement officer.

Stewart and Burroughs own Western Baler and Conveyor, which sells and repairs equipment for waste management companies.