USPS Office of Inspector General

Taking Down a $24M Check Theft Conspiracy

Investigative Case Highlights | April 9, 2025

By the time her boyfriend planted the idea, she’d worked at the Postal Service long enough to know exactly what envelopes to look for. She showed up to work each day playing the part so well, no one suspected a thing.

But in just a few months, she managed to steal more than $24 million in checks, making this the largest mail theft conspiracy in the history of the Western District of North Carolina.

"Check theft conspiracies like this one undermine our financial systems and wreak havoc on Postal Service customers. The USPS OIG remains committed to rooting out postal employees who betray the public trust to choose a life of crime. We remain steadfast in working with our law enforcement partners to dismantle these criminal organizations."

– Tammy Hull
Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service

It started when her boyfriend — who had fallen into the wrong crowd — told his buddies about her job at the Charlotte Processing and Distribution Center in North Carolina. Mail processing plants move an astonishing amount of mail each day.

In a very short time, the mail processing clerk sat at her machine, profiling and stuffing envelopes into a backpack. After bringing the checks home, her boyfriend handed them over to the head of the conspiracy, who then sold them on a marketplace she set up on a social media app. The postal employee’s spoils were a welcomed addition to an already well-oiled criminal enterprise. What brought the scheme to an end?

USPS OIG special agents routinely conduct proactive work looking for suspected criminal or fraudulent activity. One of our investigators found a marketplace and quickly pieced together where the stolen checks were coming from. Our special agents called on their partners at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service, and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department to blow the lid off the whole operation.

Investigators found the postal employee had stolen checks totaling more than $24 million, including more than $12 million in checks posted for sale on the marketplace and more than $8 million in U.S. Treasury checks. The employee, her boyfriend, and the ringleader took pains to cover their tracks, but even with the complexity of the scheme, investigators dismantled the operation.

Investigators found that during the conspiracy, the three had pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds from the sales, not including additional cash proceeds.

Investigators arrested the co-conspirators, and the postal employee was promptly terminated from the Postal Service.

The suspects were criminally charged, pleaded guilty, and received a combined prison sentence of 14 years, with the employee receiving the longest sentence of five years.

Each defendant was also ordered to pay over $110,000 in restitution jointly and individually to the victims.

Thanks to this investigation, federal law enforcement agencies also arrested, charged, and convicted criminal buyers who did business with the marketplace.

Helpful Tips to Prevent Your Checks from Being Stolen from the Mail

Subscribe to Informed Delivery — the Postal Service offers this free notification service that lets you know what mailpieces to expect every day.
When mailing checks, mail them from inside a post office.
When possible, retrieve your mail promptly. When traveling or otherwise unable to retrieve mail timely, have your mail held at your local post office.
If you suspect or know of mail theft involving Postal Service employees or contractors, or if you’ve come across marketplaces that sell stolen financial instruments, report it to our Hotline.

For further reading:

Department of Justice (via uspsoig.gov), U.S. Postal Employee And Co-Conspirator Receive Prison Time For Stolen Check Scheme