A U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee and two others were arrested for a scheme involving stealing over $24 million in checks from the mail and selling them online, prosecutors say.
The postal worker, Nakedra Shannon, 29, was employed by the USPS as a mail processing clerk at a processing and distribution center in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of North Carolina.
Shannon allegedly worked alongside two co-conspirators, Donnell Gardner, 27, and Desiray Carter, 24, to steal incoming and outgoing checks from April to July 2023. The co-conspirators then sold the checks through the Telegram channel “OG Glass House,” per the statement.
Carter ran the Telegram channel under the name “SW1PER,” according to NBC News. He advertised the checks for sale, per the indictment. Gardner was also involved in sending the checks.
They allegedly stole checks totaling over $24 million, per the statement. More than $12 million in stolen checks were posted for sale on Telegram. And over $8 million were from stolen U.S. Treasury checks.
The money was split, with half going to Carter and Shannon and the other half going to Gardner, per NBC. (RELATED: US Postal Service Is Secretly Monitoring And Reporting Social Media Posts)
A U.S. Postal Service worker and two others have been charged in a scheme in which $24 million worth of checks were stolen from the mail and offered for sale online, federal prosecutors say. https://t.co/BCaILaAikj
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 18, 2023
Undercover officers posed as buyers, and Carter then allegedly directed those buyers to a Bitcoin wallet and CashApp account, per the outlet.
The indictment alleges the defendants obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in criminal proceeds from the scheme.
The three were all charged with five counts of theft of government property and one count of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, according to court documents.
Shannon is also being charged with eight counts of theft of mail by a postal employee, per the statement. Gardner and Carter face an additional seven charges of possession of stolen mail.
The three were released on bond after their initial court appearances, according to prosecutors.