The owner of a defunct Leominster used car dealership cashed a nearly $1.4 million IRS refund check that wasn’t meant for him, federal prosecutors allege.

Jesse El-Ghoul, 31, owned Affordable Motor Group, a single-location dealership that went underwater and then belly-up, leaving him with tax debt due to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Federal authorities say that El-Ghoul somehow obtained an IRS refund check for $1,344,863 meant for a Canadian company — whose name is redacted in court filings — altered it to appear payable to his own business and then deposited it at a bank branch across the street.

El-Ghoul was arrested last month. On Thursday, a federal grand jury sitting in the U.S. District Court in Boston indicted him on charges of theft of government funds, bank fraud, and four counts of money laundering.

An IRS criminal investigator says El-Ghoul would have known he wasn’t entitled to that refund check because he had already set up an installment plan to pay off the $6,107 he owed for the 2021 tax year, “and therefore could not have had a tax refund owed to AFG for the same tax year.” He did not file a tax return for his business in 2022, according to court records.

Prosecutors say after depositing the check, El-Ghoul bought cashier’s checks for $235,280, $223,591, $202,643, and $425,000 payable to shell companies and other entities to launder the ill-gotten proceeds.

Jesse El-Ghoul, 31, of Leominster