Man sentenced in connection with $20M found in box spring

BOSTON – A Brazilian man arrested in connection with the discovery of about $20 million cash hidden inside a box spring in a Massachusetts apartment has been sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison.

Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in October to money laundering charges.

The money was found in Westborough in January 2017 during an investigation into TelexFree Inc., a defunct internet telecom company that prosecutors say was actually a billion-dollar pyramid scheme.

Prosecutors say TelexFree had few customers and made most of its revenue from people buying into the company with a promise of payouts for posting online ads.

Authorities say the 28-year-old Rocha was a courier for a fugitive TelexFree executive who came to retrieve the money move it out of the U.S.