GRAND JUNCTION — A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in a fraud ring that authorities say passed about $80,000 in fake checks to businesses in western Colorado.
The attorney general’s office says a Mesa County judge sentenced Salvador Ramirez on Friday.
Authorities say Ramirez recruited, drove and passed checks for the ring, which used the shell corporations Mount Rocky Linguistics and Expo Banquet.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers says the ring passed checks written for less than $500 at businesses in several western Colorado cities, including Aspen, Carbondale, Delta, Durango, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and Montrose.
Ramirez pleaded guilty in February to violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, theft and forgery.
Two of his co-defendants were sentenced last year, and four others remain at large.
