2 former postal workers in Philly charged with stealing government checks worth millions from mail
The former postal workers worked at a Philadelphia mail facility and targeted envelopes marked "return to sender" that contained the checks, according to the indictment.
Two former postal workers in Philadelphia and two other people have been indicted for allegedly stealing from the mail government checks worth millions of dollars, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf announced Wednesday.
From about June 2023 to around September 2024, Tauheed Tucker, 23, and Saahir Irby, 27, both of Philadelphia, stole thousands of envelopes containing U.S. Treasury checks from mail-sorting machines at the U.S. Postal Service Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center, according to the superseding indictment, which was filed under seal late last month.
U.S. Treasury checks are used for tax refunds, Social Security benefits, veterans benefits, and during and after the COVID-19 pandemic as payments to employers for not laying off workers, the indictment said.
Tucker and Irby, who are cousins, would focus on envelopes marked “return to sender” and would stuff them into sweatshirt and jacket pockets and backpacks, the indictment said.
Irby and Tucker then allegedly sold the checks to Cory Scott, 25, of Ardmore, and Alexander Telewoda, 25, of Clifton Heights, who advertised them for resale on the social media platform Telegram, Metcalf said.
Scott was the administrator of Telegram channels called “SWIPESLAB” and “STIM LORD” and “THE FRANCHISE” and he would advertise the stolen checks in those channels, the indictment said.
The checks would often be offered for 10% of their face value, the indictment said.
The total face value of all the stolen checks was more than $80 million, but according to the indictment, the actual loss for the U.S. government was around $11 million from what the purchasers were able to fraudulently make from passing off hundreds of checks to financial institutions.
The indictment did not say how much in total the defendants allegedly made from the scheme.
Irby also is charged with a separate instance of mail theft involving another batch of Treasury checks that he allegedly stole and then sold to an unnamed person in August 2024, Metcalf said.
If convicted, Irby faces up to 25 years in prison, Metcalf said. Tucker, Scott, and Telewoda face up to 20 years in prison.