Falmouth Man Charged with Fraud, Theft and Impersonating a Federal Officer

PORTLAND, Maine:  A federal grand jury indicted a Falmouth man for federal program fraud, wire fraud, false personation and theft of government benefits, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced today.

According to the indictment and a criminal complaint, between 2014 and 2017, Joshua Cory Frances, 43: (a) impersonated a Department of Homeland Security law enforcement official; (b) obtained by fraud, over $700,000 worth of excess equipment from the Department of Defense; (c) converted to his own use, a 44-foot sailing vessel named COURAGEOUS, and a 27‑foot Boston Whaler power boat and two Mercury Marine 150-horsepower outboard engines; (d) embezzled almost $21,000 from his employer to transport the boats and engines to Maine; (e) evaded more than $3,000 in state excise taxes on personally owned vehicles; and (f) stole $9,630 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to which he was not entitled.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General; the Defense Criminal Investigative Service; the Office of the Maine Attorney General; the Maine Department of the Secretary of State, Bureau of Motor Vehicles; and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services investigated the case, with assistance provided by the FBI and the Falmouth and Brunswick Police Departments.

Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt.