A California man accused of using identity theft and passport fraud to elude authorities across the country is facing several related charges in Maine’s federal court.

Matthew Charnay, 40, was indicted in U.S. District Court in Portland last fall on five felony counts, including aggravated identity theft, false statements in passport applications and false representation of a Social Security number. Charnay is also accused of using the aliases Andros Vassilikos and Erik Meyer, according to court records.

Prosecutors believe that over the last six years Charnay has operated under at least four false identities, including those he stole from two individuals, whose names he later changed in court. They accuse Charnay of evading arrest warrants on both coasts — including one in 2023 for burglary in Los Angeles, and warrants alleging grand larceny in New York and New Jersey — while traveling extensively, including flights to Belgium, France, Gambia, Germany, Morocco and Ukraine.

Charnay’s alleged scheme went undetected for at least four years, according to court records detailing the case against him, despite dozens of interactions with federal and state governmental agencies, who issued him driver’s licenses, legal name changes, new Social Security cards and passports.

Under one false identity, prosecutors allegeCharnay obtained a firearms license. Charnay was convicted of conspiracy to pass counterfeit currency in 2005, according to court records. Prosecutors said that because of this felony conviction, he is not allowed to have guns.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Yereniuk wrote in court records that Charnay could face charges for this.

Yereniuk did not respond to a request for comment. Heather Gonzales, a federal defender representing Charnay, said Thursday that she was bound by her office’s policy from discussing the case publicly.

“Given the great lengths that the Defendant has taken to adopt and feign as the four identities,” Yereniuk wrote in court records, “it is possible that he has adopted other false identities using similar means, to acquire more illegal firearms or engage in other nefarious activity.”

Prosecutors allege that Charnay used the birth certificate of a Black man from Georgia to obtain a new Social Security card, a passport and a Maine driver’s license in Portland in 2020. According to court records, Charnay is white and the man from Georgia had no ties to the area.

Charnay is accused of changing the Georgia man’s name to Andros Vassilikos in Cumberland County Probate Court four years later, according to Yereniuk, allowing him to obtain another Maine driver’s license under the new name. Charnay allegedly applied for the passport and license using pictures of himself, according to court records.

The Maine Department of the Secretary of State, which oversees the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, declined to comment through a spokesperson. Staff from the Cumberland County probate court were at an all-day training Thursday and could not be reached.

While in New York in May 2024, Charnay was arrested and charged with grand larceny. Prosecutors said he identified himself using the Georgia man’s name.

By November 2024, according to court records, he allegedly applied for another passport using the Vassilikos identity. That time, his application was flagged for potential fraud. Yereniuk wrote that Charnay appeared to lie about his job and employer.

Using facial recognition technology, investigators determined that Charnay’s image had been used in passport applications for more than one person, according to court records. Investigators also compared fingerprints taken from Charnay when he was arrested in New York in 2024 to his prints from another case in California and an expert confirmed both prints likely came from the same person, Yereniuk wrote.

Yereniuk wrote that, as he was being investigated, Charnay allegedly stole another identity, using the birth certificate of someone born in Florida to obtain a Social Security card in Connecticut.

Charnay is accused of later changing that person’s name to Erik Meyer in a Connecticut court. Yereniuk wrote that when Charnay applied for a passport using that name and his photograph, it was flagged for fraud.

Charnay was arrested on March 29 at a Target, where prosecutors say that a loss prevention officer for the store caught him shoplifting. Charnay, who has been ordered to remain in custody, is currently on the federal court’s September trial list.