HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) – A political consultant and former state representative was sentenced on Thursday for conspiring to defraud a New Haven probate judge in 2017, according to the Connecticut Division of Justice.

United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery announced that Victor Cuevas, 59, was sentenced to eight months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

According to court records, Cuevas co-operated a political consulting firm called Yellow Dog Strategies in the state.

Yellow Dog Strategies was paid $5,750 in 2017 to collect 1,000 signatures from registered democrats in New Haven to support of a probate judge primary candidate.

Cuevas supervised the collection of the signatures using a team of “circulators,” who were each required by state regulations to sign a statement of authenticity, before a notary publicly attested, the signatures were collected in person.

According to the DCJ, instead of collecting legitimate voters’ signatures, Cuevas conspired with others to defraud the candidate by submitting falsified petitions.

Officials said Cuevas caused signatures of registered voters to be forged on the petitions, in addition to the signature of a purported circulator on a statement of authenticity.

As a result, the falsified forms were delivered to the candidate who was unaware of the forgeries. The candidate then submitted the petitions to be counted.

Officials said the New Haven Democratic Registrar of Voters quickly caught the forged signatures in the petition.

Upon learning of the forgeries, the candidate then withdrew from the primary.

The Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission initiated an investigation into Cuevas. Upon learning of the investigation, Cuevas and his co-conspirators attempted to hide their scheme by pressuring the calculator to sign a false affidavit.

A judge ordered Cuevas to pay $5,750 in restitution, according to the DCJ.

Authorities said Cuevas was on probation at the time of the offense for a prior offense.

In October 2016, Cuevas was sentenced to one year of probation and had to pay a 1,000 fine for committing wire fraud in connection to his home mortgage loan applications.

Cuevas was released on a $100,000 bond and is required to report to prison on Sept. 5.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).