A Washington, DC, mail carrier has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for stealing more than $1.6 million in personal and U.S. Treasury checks from the mail.
This case began when a customer filed a complaint with the USPS Office of Inspector General, also known as the OIG, alleging that his carrier had stolen his $14,000 IRS tax refund check and then fraudulently cashed it.
OIG special agents opened an investigation into the matter. They discovered this was not a one-time heist but rather a well-networked criminal enterprise spanning 40 different Washington, DC, mail routes and involving nearly 100 stolen checks.
Many of the checks were federal tax refunds, so the special agents reached out to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration as well as the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.
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