BOSTON — A Boston man allegedly made a false claim seeking nearly $2.2 million from the main compensation fund for Boston Marathon bombing victims, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said Tuesday.

Branden Mattier, 22, allegedly claimed to The One Fund that his long-dead aunt had both legs amputated as a result of the April 15 attacks that killed three people and injured more than 260, Coakley said. She said Mattier’s aunt died more than 10 years ago.

Mattier was arrested Tuesday when he accepted a fake check for $2.195 million from an undercover state trooper, Coakley said. He was charged with attempted larceny and identity theft and is expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on Wednesday.

“Because every dollar was allocated to victims, he sought to take these funds away from real victims of the Marathon attack and from the thousands of people who had so generously given to help those who truly need it,” Coakley said in a statement.

It is not immediately known who is representing Mattier.

Coakley said The One Fund reported the suspicious claim to her office.

The attorney general said Mattier attended a May 7 town hall meeting for people seeking information about applying for One Fund benefits, and sent the fund an email May 29 asking if his aunt could make a claim as a double amputee if the amputation was expected in the future.

The fund got his claim in June along with a letter dated May 2 purportedly from Boston Medical Center verifying that his aunt was a double amputee, the attorney general said. Boston Medical Center said they wrote no such letter.


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