Sheboygan County resident faces potential 150-year sentence for check fraud

In Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, a 49-year-old man faces 35 criminal charges for forging a roommate's checks while she was in a coma, Sheboygan Press reports. Larry J. Lapan was charged on Wednesday with 14 counts of bail jumping, 12 counts of forgery, six counts of misdemeanor fraudulent credit card use and three counts of identity theft. Combined, the charges amount to a maximum prison sentence of more than 150 years, according to the news source. Lapan started by making the checks out to himself and cashing them at financial institutions. Once banks and vendors started denying him, he asked friends to process the checks in their name. Lapan was said to have purchased goods fraudulently from May through June, authorities said. According to the complaint filed, Lapan cashed thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent checks which he stole from his roommate. Lapan mentioned to authorities that he cashed the checks to make drug deals, the news source mentions. Lapan is also being charged for cashing blank payroll checks from a currently-defunct business and stealing a checkbook from a jail inmate.