Former Mail Carrier Sentenced To Prison For Bank Fraud Conspiracy Involving Stolen Mail

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A former U.S. mail carrier was sentenced to prison today for participating in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud involving mail she stole from her postal route, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Kiara Padgett, 31, of Charlotte, was ordered to serve a six-month active prison sentence followed by six months of home detention.

Padgett’s husband, Dominique Dunlap, was previously sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,650,921.70 as restitution. A third co-conspirator, Terrell Alexander Hager, Jr., was sentenced to three years in prison in connection with the scheme.

Rodney Hopkins, Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) which oversees North Carolina, Kathleen Woodson, Special Agent in Charge, United States Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General (USPS-OIG) for the Mid-Atlantic Area Field Office (MAAFO), which overseas Charlotte, and Chief Estella D. Patterson of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD), join U.S. Attorney Ferguson in making today’s announcement.

“As I have said before, I am sick and tired of checks being stolen from the mail – which we too often see from employees of the Postal Service,” said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. “We are working tirelessly to catch these thieves and bring them to justice.”

According to court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, from August 2021 to November 2022, Padgett conspired with Dunlap, Hager, and others to execute a scheme involving stolen checks. Padgett used her position as a mail carrier to steal checks of businesses and individuals from her postal route. Acting as an intermediary, Dunlap sold the stolen checks to Hager and other individuals. The stolen checks were then deposited into bank accounts controlled by co-conspirators and quickly withdrawn as cash before the financial institutions or the victims detected the fraud. Court documents show that the total face value of checks stolen from Padgett’s postal routes was over $8.5 million.

On September 15, 2023, Padgett pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank.

In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Ferguson commended the USPIS, USPS-OIG, and CMPD for their investigation of the case.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Frick of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.