JACKSON, MS—Christopher B. Epps, former Commissioner for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, and Cecil McCrory, a former Mississippi legislator, former Justice Court Judge, former Chairman of the Rankin County School Board, and a local businessman, entered guilty pleas today before U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Harold Brittain, FBI Special Agent in Charge Donald Alway, IRS-Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge Jerome R. McDuffie, U.S. Postal Inspector in Charge Robert Wemyss, and Mississippi State Auditor Stacey Pickering.

Christopher Epps pled guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of filing a false tax return. Cecil McCrory pled guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy.

Epps will be sentenced on June 9, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. and McCrory will be sentenced on June 10, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. The maximum penalty for money laundering conspiracy is 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction. The maximum penalty for filing a false tax return is three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

This case was investigated by the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Mississippi State Auditor’s Office, and the Leake County Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mike Hurst, Darren LaMarca, and Scott Gilbert, as well as financial analyst Kim Mitchell, are prosecuting the case.