A 77-year-old Macclesfield man plead guilty in a Raleigh federal courtroom Monday to one felony count of conspiracy to launder money.

Joseph Eugene Eason was charged for the crime on May 15, as he participated in a scheme to defraud crop insurance companies of funds, to be paid for by the federal government.

Eason worked with a Wilson tobacco brokerage firm to sell tobacco in the names of others.

Kenneth Gene Kelly, 46, of Lucama also plead guilty in Raleigh on Monday to one felony count of conspiracy to launder money in connection with the scheme. The Bill of Information stated Kelly ran the tobacco brokerage firm that facilitated the scheme's operations.

The bill further stated Kelly broke down checks for the tobacco into smaller amounts, to avoid the likelihood of a financial institution filing a Currency Transaction Report when a check was cashed.

Eason plead guilty to laundering $30,000 to $70,000. Kelly plead guilty to laundering between $400,000 to $1 million.

Eason and Kelly could receive as many as 20 years imprisonment, a $500,000 fine or twice the value of the funds involved in the offense, whichever is more, and up to three years probation.

United States Attorney George E.B. Holding said, "No one should regard the end of the tobacco quota program as a license to commit crop insurance fraud. These guilty pleas are just the most recent successes in a long-term, multi-agency effort to protect the integrity of our agricultural markets."