CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The man identified by New Hampshire investigators as the ringleader of a nationwide identity theft and check counterfeiting ring has been sentenced to nine years in prison by a federal judge.

Forty-eight-year-old Edgar Rose of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty in October to wire fraud.

Rose told investigators he and co-conspirator Quentin West of Pittsburg — who was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison — had been counterfeiting checks for about three years.

Investigators say they cashed more than $370,000 in bogus payroll checks at Walmarts nationwide before being arrested at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Tilton in 2011.

Rose’s lawyer argued to pare more than two years off the sentence to spare the burden to taxpayers to keep him behind bars.