R&B artist gets year in prison

MIAMI (AP) - An R&B artist was sentenced Friday to a year in prison and was ordered to pay $125,415 in restitution for helping run a counterfeit check ring with his bandmates and 20 other people.

Clarence Glover of Miami printed fake corporate checks and hired people to cash them, prosecutors charged. Glover and former Georgetown basketball player Maceo Spates, who was sentenced earlier to nearly four years in prison, were the ringleaders.
Glover, Spates and two other members of the group 40 Below were part of the fraud. Spates admitted making as much as $500,000 from the scheme, and Secret Service agents tracked more than $200,000 in cashed checks.