KANSAS CITY – Three men have been sentenced in a scheme that used homeless men to cash counterfeit payroll checks in the Kansas City area.

Federal prosecutors say more than $400,000 in counterfeit checks were cashed in the region in late 2012 and early 2013, as part of a scheme that used homeless people to cash more than $8 million in counterfeit checks across the country.

Forty-eight-year-old Truly Matthews and 47-year-old Calvin Almond, both of Atlanta, and 55-year-old Gary Merritt, of Kansas City, Kansas, were sentenced Monday. Matthews was sentenced to 10 years and four months in federal prison without parole and must pay $62,861 in restitution; Merritt got five years and $239,092 in restitution; and Almond was sentenced to two years and 11 months and $57,772 in restitution.