Undelivered Checks in NYC Financial District Lead to Major Bust
A complaint to our OIG Hotline alleged checks mailed to businesses in New York City’s financial district were never delivered and were instead negotiated by unknown third parties. Our data analytics showed the complaint wasn’t an isolated incident; in fact, there were many similar complaints for that area. Partnering with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, FBI, and NYPD, our special agents found a suspect: a mail handler at a post office in the district.
Investigators arrested the employee after seeing him pick bundles of mail and stuff them into his personal bag while on the workroom floor. The employee admitted to stealing checks and packages roughly three times a week for about a year. That day, our special agents found 300 mailings between his bag and personal locker on site — and that’s only a one-time-find.
The employee also confessed to selling the stolen checks to an outside co-conspirator who, with others involved in the scheme, doctored and sold them online. Search warrants at the co-conspirator’s home and another location later recovered almost 3,500 mailings containing checks. Investigators arrested the co-conspirator and, with the help of the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, both men pleaded guilty to the charges. They were both sentenced to one year in prison and were each ordered to pay $2.8 million in damages.
If those numbers aren’t staggering enough, consider that almost 3,000 victims were identified using the recovered mail — primarily high-profile businesses in lower Manhattan. And the value of the checks recovered was around $12 million.
Don’t underestimate the power that filing a hotline complaint can have. If you suspect or know of mail theft involving Postal Service employees or contractors, please report it to our Hotline. Or if you suspect mail theft by someone outside USPS, report it to the Postal Inspection Service.
For further reading:
Department of Justice (via uspsoig.gov), 27 Defendants Charged with Federal Crimes Targeting The United States Postal Service