March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Man pleads guilty in Bean check case

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A man who prosecutors said took a $3 refund from the L.L. Bean catalog store and altered it into a phony check for $30,000 has pleaded guilty to federal mail and bank fraud charges.

Edward O’Connell, 48, of Chicopee pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court here Monday. Judge Frank Freedman scheduled sentencing for Feb. 16.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Levchuck said O’Connell, using an alias and a mail drop was able to cash the phony refund from the Maine mail-order house in 1989, but had less luck with an altered $2.39 refund for a package of stale buns from the Charles Freihofer Baking Co.

Levchuck told the judge that O’Connell altered the refund to read $15,552.39, but Freihofer’s bank refused to honor the check he had deposited into a credit union account and turned it over to the FBI. O’Connell was arrested after the FBI found his fingerprints on the check.


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