Businessman allegedly bought properties with drug money

WORCESTER - A city businessman has been arrested and charged in U.S. District Court with using proceeds from drug sales to purchase and renovate area properties, including two local restaurants. 

According to the office of acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb, Kevin A. Perry, 43, also used the money to finance his wedding in August 2015. Mr. Perry last fall opened The Usual at 166 Shrewsbury St., one of the properties he allegedly purchased with illegal drug sale proceeds. He also in the fall bought 81 Water St., The Blackstone Tap, in the Canal District. 

Mr. Perry was arrested Monday and was indicted on nine counts of money laundering, three counts of aggravated cash structuring, making a false statement on a loan application, and fentanyl distribution. He was held pending a detention hearing after being arraigned before U.S. District Court Magistrate David H. Hennessy. 

According to the indictment, in January 2005 Mr. Perry was convicted in federal court of conspiracy to manufacture MDMA, commonly referred to as ecstasy. Despite filing an affidavit claiming he possessed nothing of monetary value to satisfy the court's forfeiture order, Mr. Perry later asserted to an individual at the time that he had successfully concealed millions of dollars in profits from the government. After he was released in 2008, Mr. Perry returned to manufacturing and/or distributing controlled substances, including anabolic steroids, cocaine, and fentanyl. According to the indictment, during that time the only employment Mr. Perry reported to the U.S. Probation Office and the Internal Revenue Service was as a fitness trainer earning around $4,800 per month. 

The U.S. attorney's office alleges that from April 2012 to October 2016, Mr. Perry used more than $1 million in drug sale proceeds to purchase and renovate eight properties in Worcester and one in Millbury. He also used the proceeds to purchase more than 230 money orders totaling more than $150,000 from the U.S. Postal Service and Western Union to make structured cash payments on real estate loans and to finance his August 2015 wedding in Newport, Rhode Island. 

The eight properties in Worcester Mr. Perry purchased with alleged illegal drug sale proceeds were: 38 Woodford St.; 50 Gibbs St., Unit 6; 25 Andover St., Unit S-1; 193 Hamilton St.; 119 Heywood St.; 56 Copperfield Road; 166 Shrewsbury St.; and 81 Water St. The Millbury property was at 104 McCracken Road.

According to the U.S. attorney's office, Mr. Perry faces up to 20 years in prison on the money laundering charges, up to 10 years for the aggravated cash structuring charge, and up to 30 years for the making a false statement on a loan application charge. The fentanyl distribution charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg A. Friedholm of the U.S. attorney's Worcester branch office is prosecuting the case.