Topsham Man Pleads Guilty to Mail Fraud

Contact: Donald E. Clark
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Topsham Man Pleads Guilty to Mail Fraud

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Brian Lafrance, 36, of Topsham, Maine, pled guilty today in U.S. District Court to mail fraud.

According to court records, between January 2014 and October 29, 2014, the defendant sought to fraudulently obtain $6,383 by claiming that he was owed that amount for electrical work he had performed at a residence located in Portland that was then the subject of federal forfeiture proceedings.  In fact, he had never worked on the residence and was not owed any money for work done there. To execute the scheme, the defendant mailed claims to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albany, New York and to the U.S. District Courthouse in Syracuse, New York.
     
Lafrance faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.  He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.