Maine man gets 2 ½ years for check-stealing scheme

A Portland man was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 30 months behind bars and ordered to pay $32,564 restitution for his part in a scheme to steal and forge checks.

Paul Logugune, 22, pleaded guilty on May 1.

From May to June 2022, Logugune and a co-conspirator allegedly broke into unattended vehicles and stole purses and wallets to get driver’s licenses and checkbooks, according to court records cited by the U.S. Department of Justice in a news release.

The two then allegedly forged checks from the stolen checkbooks made payable to the names on the stolen licenses and recruited others to cash the checks at several credit union branches in Cumberland County using the stolen IDs to impersonate the victims, according to the DOJ.