A Canadian man pleaded innocent Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to charges that he was involved in a scheme to defraud a Waldoboro Christmas tree grower.

Appearing before a U.S. magistrate, a federal prosecutor also asked that George M. Waugh, 41, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, who has been a fugitive for three years, be detained by federal authorities because of risk of flight.

Convicted of a similar charge in Canada, Waugh, who was extradited to face the U.S. charges, could receive a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison and a $255,000 fine.

U.S. Magistrate Edward Keith is expected to make a decision on the detention in the near future.

Waugh was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 1987 on seven counts of making interstate telephone calls to advance the scheme and one count of illegal interstate transportation of Christmas trees. He was charged with attempting to defraud Evergreen Farms and its owner, William Karas.

The defendant failed to appear for a May 1987 arraignment. Extradition proceedings were begun in July 1988 in Canada, but Waugh, who was released on bail, failed to show up for subsequent hearings. He was arrested in June 1990 and was extradited to the United States.

According to court documents, Waugh allegedly arranged several shipments of Christmas trees to Massachusetts and Connecticut with Karas in December 1984, giving the farm owner partial payments in cash and checks. The checks later were found to be drawn on an account with insufficient funds under the name of Waugh Ventures Ltd.

According to a court affidavit, Karas lost about $14,000 in trees and shipment costs. Karas stated in the affadavit that he confronted Waugh, who was staying in Connecticut, about the bounced checks, saying, “You’ve been kifing money.”

“Waugh laughed and said to me, `No, the proper term is `kiting,”‘ Karas said in the document.

Other U.S. and Canadian court documents state that Waugh was convicted in January 1986 of defrauding a Canadian Christmas tree grower of $57,207.