Updated: January 8, 2011, 9:17 AM

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article306011.ece

A Brewton, Ala., businessman who had ties to a business in Williamsville pleaded guilty on Friday to taking part in a $20 million money-laundering operation.

Gregory H. Whitworth, 45, who was living and working in the Kingdom of Bahrain prior to his arrest last year, pleaded guilty to a felony money-laundering charge before U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny.

Prosecutors said Whitworth was a former vice president of a Columbus, Ohio, business, Integrated Check Technologies, which was involved in a complicated scheme to launder money for telemarketing companies in Canada and the United States. Whitworth faces a possible prison term of 70 to 87 months, Assistant U. S. Attorney MaryEllen Kresse said.

Also facing sentencing in a related case is Ralph S. Guastaferro Jr., 64, who ran Eclipse Processing Inc. of Williamsville, a company that assisted Whitworth’s company in the money-laundering operation, prosecutors said.

Guastaferro, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering in late 2009, is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 25, but his attorneys have requested a delay. He admitted that he laundered $1.2 million for telemarketers.

In a case unrelated to the money-laundering scheme, his wife, Karen Guastaferro, 56, faces sentencing for tax fraud in connection with a glass-tinting company she ran. Her attorneys have also asked for a Jan. 25 sentencing to be delayed.