Bruce Spinney Grafton, Mass. arrested for fraud – NBC Boston

A former Grafton, Massachusetts, city official has been arrested on fraud charges alleging that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors for a marijuana company and instead spent the money on paying off debts at another company.

Bruce W. Spinney III, 49, was charged Thursday with three counts of wire fraud and one count of conducting an unauthorized monetary transaction, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said in a statement in connection with what prosecutors described as a scheme to defraud investors in a marijuana dispensary.

According to officials, Spinney resigned as chairman of the Grafton Select Board in August 2019. He then secured hundreds of thousands of dollars for his new business, a marijuana dispensary called Noble Manna, Inc.

Before starting the marijuana business, Spinney ran an indebted company called Spinney Enterprises, which engaged in equipment rental and laundry. Prosecutors allege that he used his investors’ money not to set up and license Noble Manna stores in Grafton and Mendon as proposed, but to pay off his previous debts to Spinney Enterprises.

Investigators say he paid debt collectors and outstanding business loans, as well as made cash withdrawals and paid for personal expenses. He is also accused of illegally transferring $27,000 of that money to pay off a debt.

Spinney was arrested on Friday and released on bail after appearing in federal court in Worcester. He faces up to 20 years in prison, three years probation and a $250,000 fine for each count of wire fraud. For the illegal money transaction charge, he faces up to 10 years in prison, two years probation and a $250,000 fine.

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