BATON ROUGE — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced charges against a Gonzales man, saying he conspired to launder money and defrauded the U.S. tax system of $4.4 million.

U.S. Attorney Ronald Gathe said Damian R. Raby, 41, filed numerous tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service falsely claiming employee retention tax credits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The businesses either did not exist or did not have any legitimate business activity before the pandemic, the prosecutors said.

The employee retention credit was established to help business keep their workers on staff during the pandemic.

The government alleges that Raby and others, after receiving the government funds, would quickly move the money among various accounts to disguise the fraud. Ultimately, the government said, Raby would make large payments for luxury vehicles, on his mortgage and for other large purchases.

Raby is also accused of lying to IRS agents and generating fake documents once he learned about the investigation.