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Miami Herald
23-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Two postal workers paid to steal checks as part of $63 million scheme, feds say
Two postal workers stole checks from the mail and passed them off to co-conspirators to be sold online in connection with a $63 million fraud scheme, federal prosecutors said. The two U.S. Postal Service clerks and the two accused check resellers have been charged with conspiracy to aid and abet bank and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said May 23. No attorney information for the defendants was available in court records as of May 23. Vanessa Hargrove, 39, and Crystal Jenkins, 31, were mail processing clerks at USPS distribution centers in Michigan and Ohio, respectively, federal officials said. The two employees used their jobs to pull certain items out of the mail stream, including a 'large volume of IRS tax refund checks, issued by the U.S. Treasury,' investigators said in a May 22 charging document. Then they were paid to give the checks to 30-year-old Daquan Foreman and 31-year-old Jaiswan Williams, who officials said were administrators of messaging groups dedicated to selling stolen checks to buyers on Telegram, a messaging application. Williams and Foreman, whose first name is spelled Dequan in a news release, would post the checks in two channels, one called Uber Eats Slips, which sold checks under $1,500, and to another called Whole Foods Slipsss, where the maximum value of a check could exceed $100,000, authorities said. Over $63 million worth of checks were posted in the two channels, investigators said. According to investigators, buyers could purchase the checks for cheap relative to their value, and they could even get a 'buy four get one free' deal in the Uber Eats Slips channel, which typically sold checks for $75 each. The buyers would use Bitcoin, Cash App and Apple Pay to buy the checks then forge them and try to deposit them, authorities said. Williams is also charged with money laundering, with prosecutors saying he used Cash App accounts in other people's names to receive proceeds from the stolen check sales and then transfer that money to his own accounts. He's accused of running a pandemic unemployment assistance scheme as well and is facing a wire fraud charge. 'When public employees break the public trust, they enrich themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer and undermine the institution itself,' U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said.
CBS News
23-05-2025
- CBS News
Former U.S. Postal Service employees charged in $63M stolen check scheme
Four people, including two former U.S. Postal Service employees, have been charged with their alleged involvement in a $63 million scheme involving checks that were stolen from the mail and then resold. The stolen checks included Internal Revenue Service refunds issued by the U.S. Treasury. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan's announcement Friday cited the lead role of the U.S. Postal Service on the investigation, with the assistance of the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor. Jaiswan Williams, 31, of Rochester Hills, Michigan, Dequan Foreman, 30, of Eastpointe, Michigan, Vanessa Hargrove, 39, of Detroit, and Crystal Jenkins, 31, of Detroit, all were charged with conspiracy to aid and abet bank and wire fraud. If convicted, the four face up to 30 years in prison. Williams also faces charges related to money laundering and fraudulent pandemic unemployment insurance benefit claims. Hargrove and Jenkins were United States Postal Service employees, the district attorney's office said. Williams and Foreman were the administrators of the online marketplaces on Telegram Messenger, which is an instant messaging application. The district attorney's office explained that the scheme involved the online sale of stolen checks. The resale price depended on the face value of the check. The purchases were made via a variety of electronic payment platforms. Those who purchased the checks would then attempt to fraudulently cash them. "This investigation represents the hard work and dedication by USPS OIG special agents, working with the U.S. Attorney's Office and other federal agencies, to bring charges on this significant mail theft investigation," Tammy Hull, Inspector General U.S. Postal Service, said in a statement about the case.
