A Maryland woman was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday after depositing counterfeit Treasury checks into her Maine business.
[RELATED: New Gloucester Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Scheme After Presenting Fake U.S. Treasury Checks…]
U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr., sentenced Palwasha Shir, 36, formerly of Westbrook, to two years in prison and ordered her to pay $290,947 in restitution.
Shir first pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting the presentation of a counterfeit government check on June 23.
At the time of the fraud, Shir was the owner of the Maine-based Selfie Room LLC.
She opened a checking account for that business in a Maine-based credit union.
In July 2024, she caused a counterfeit treasury check for $291,203 to be deposited into the Selfie Room’s account. In August, she caused another fraudulent check for $193,107 to be deposited into the same account.
The serial numbers and amounts on the checks matched those of real IRS tax refund checks, but they had not been made out to the Selfie Room. Shir changed the name of the recipient and the address.
An employee of the credit union spoke with Shir about the checks, and she claimed that she received them from the IRS.
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