Benjamin Cantey, 43, of Cincinnati, was sentenced on July 27 to 40 months in federal prison for defrauding victims out of more than $6.5 million through an online laundry and dry-cleaning pickup and delivery business.
Cantey lied to investors and potential investors about his business’s financial stability, growth, potential growth, as well as his own business experience and prior success. According to court documents, in 2019 Cantey started Carbon IQ Inc., doing business as Rumby, a Delaware corporation he operated out of Cincinnati. Rumby was presented as a venture-backed startup providing an e-commerce platform for laundry and dry cleaning pickup and delivery services.
From 2020 through 2022, Cantey communicated false information that overstated Rumby’s revenue, profits, bank balance, growth and potential growth. He sent false presentation decks to victims; for example, he claimed that Rumby ended May 2022 with a $1.5 million bank balance when the account actually had a negative balance of approximately -$53,000.
The defendant spent $850,000 in investor money toward purchasing a 5,000-square-foot home valued at $1.7 million on Garden Place in Cincinnati.
Cantey was indicted in December 2024 and pleaded guilty in October 2025 to wire fraud. The sentence was announced by Vipal J. Patel, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; and U.S. District Judge Matthew W. McFarland imposed the sentence.