Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Nicholas Veelenturf, 31, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Senior Judge George Z. Singal to two years in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring with others to steal checks from the mail in Maine and to cash counterfeit versions of those checks at banks in Massachusetts. He was also ordered to pay $15,710.33 in restitution. Veelenturf pled guilty on June 19, 2018.
According to court records, in September 2016, two business checks were stolen from the mail in Scarborough, Maine. The intended recipients of these checks were businesses located in an industrial park in Scarborough. About two weeks later, the defendant and another person cashed or attempted to cash counterfeit versions of the two checks at several TD Bank branch locations in Massachusetts. The routing and account numbers for each business had been printed on different check stock, the check amounts had been significantly increased, and the names of the payees had been altered to either the defendant’s or the other person’s name.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
