A man is accused of paying several mail carriers for the United States Postal Service to steal credit cards from the mail. The whole crime ended up being a $750,000 identity theft scam.
According to the district attorney’s office, more than 1,000 credit cards were stolen from New York and Virginia customers.
Michael Richards, 37, is accused of being the ringleader And has been charged with recruiting a group of USPS workers to steal credit cards.
He then used the cards to buy luxury goods from designer stores, including Hermes, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Neiman Marcus, the Manhattan, NY district attorney’s office said in its Dec. 8 news release.
He “paid the mail carriers different amounts depending on how well the cards they stole performed,” according to the office. “This holiday season, we know that identity thieves will be targeting not just our inboxes, but our mailboxes,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. reported.
Ten people in the conspiracy have been indicted for the involvement in the theft of more than $750,000 between January 2017 and August 2019.
Richards Allegedly recruited and paid USPS mail carriers to steal the credit cards while delivering mail along their routes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Burke, Virginia, the Miami Herald reported.
The accused USPS workers have been identified as Kennisha Murrell, 36; Curquan Highsmith, 31; Bruce Bienvenu, 31; and Kenneth Freeman Jr., 25.
“Today’s indictment alleges an elaborate, national fraud scheme that betrayed our mail delivery system to prey on innocent victims,” Dermot Shea, NYPD police commissioner, said in a statement on Dec. 8.
Once the cards were stolen, the district attorney’s office said that a person acting as a courier, which authorities say was 38-year-old Shamar Haughton, would retrieve the cards from them.
Then authorities claim Justin Forgenie, 33, would figure out the victimized cardholders’ personal information using online databases and send that information over to Richards.
According to the release, Richards would have Tatiana Smith, 34, use the stolen credit cards to purchase items at stores that also included Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, and Macy’s.
He also is accused of ordering Smith “to purchase items that could easily be resold, or returned for store credit which was then sold for cash.”
Eventually–two year’s-the fraud scam was noticed by a credit card company after realizing “a pattern of new cards not reaching their owners,” the release said.
The credit card company then contacted the United States Postal Inspection Service, which helped investigate the fraud with the help of the district attorney’s office and the NYPD.
In a statement, the group has been called a “gang of criminals” by USPIS Inspector in Charge Philip R. Bartlett.
“The USPS has more than 640,000 professional and dedicated employees. Unfortunately, we occasionally identify a few bad actors who are swiftly removed from government service,” Bartlett said.
All ten defendants were charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment and face several charges, including fourth-degree conspiracy and three counts of second-degree grand larceny, among other charges.
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