Four Pennsylvania men have been charged in a scheme to steal tens of millions of dollars in government checks. Tauheed Tucker, Cory Scott, and Alexander Telewoda were arrested and charged with conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds, and mail theft. A fourth defendant, Saahir Irby, was charged with these offenses in addition to a previously charged count of mail theft involving another batch of Treasury checks that he allegedly stole and sold in August 2024.
The superseding indictment (a new indictment that replaces a previous one in a criminal case) alleges that, between June 2023 and September 2024, Irby and Tucker, while working as USPS mail processing clerks, stole thousands of envelopes containing U.S. Treasury checks from mail sorting machines at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. Processing and Distribution Centers are one of nine different types of processing facilities—they process and dispatch mail arriving from Post Offices and collection boxes within a specific geographic location.
According to the indictment, Irby and Tucker took the checks from the USPS facility. Specifically, Irby was assigned to machines that processed Treasury checks as “Return to Sender.” When other USPS employees went on break, Irby and Tucker allegedly took envelopes from the sorting machines and hid them in their clothing and backpacks to smuggle them out to their cars.
The feds allege that Irby and Tucker then sold them to Scott and Telewoda, who then advertised the stolen checks for resale on Telegram, often showing images of the checks. Telegram is a cloud-based messaging platform, similar to iMessage or WhatsApp, that allows users a great deal of privacy and anonymity—for example, messages can be set to disappear. While there are many legitimate users, it has also become known as something of a digital “dark market” space.
Once Scott and Telewoda received payment from the buyers (often at 10% of the face value of the checks), they would mail the stolen Treasury checks to buyers around the country. Those buyers would then attempt to cash the checks and claim the money.
Over the course of the scheme, the indictment alleges, Irby and Tucker sold Scott and Telewoda thousands of stolen Treasury checks, valued at over $80 million. Scott’s and Telewoda’s customers were able to cash in approximately $11 million worth of the stolen Treasury checks.
If convicted, Irby faces a maximum possible sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $1,000,000 fine, and Tucker, Scott, and Telewoda each face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $750,000 fine.
Emails to attorneys representing Irby, Tucker and Telewoda seeking comment were not immediately returned. It is unclear from court records whether Scott is currently represented.
Other Cases
This is the second high-profile case in a few months’ time. In March, Hachikosela Muchimba, a former U.S. Postal Service employee, was found guilty of stealing checks, including tax refund checks, from customers on his route. Muchimba had been accused of pocketing over $1.6 million in stolen checks.
Mail Theft
Although that may feel alarming, your mail is typically safe. The Postal Service provides mail service to almost 153 million customers six days a week with relatively few incidents. Before 2020, mail theft from mail receptacles—such as mailboxes—was primarily perpetrated through forced entry or the use of fishing devices. However, that changed as the Post Office strengthened the physical security of blue collection boxes.
According to a 2023 report, the Postal Service has experienced significant growth in mail theft from mail receptacles. There was an 87% increase in reports of high-volume mail theft from mail receptacles, with 20,574 reports in 2019 and 38,535 reports in 2022. That growth, the agency said, likely has been driven by a marked shift by organized criminal groups towards the perpetration of low-risk, high-reward financial crimes.
At the same time, there was a marked increase in letter carrier robberies—a 543% boost in letter carrier robberies between 2019 and 2022, with 64 letter carrier robberies in 2019 and 412 letter carrier robberies in 2022.
The Postal Service has ramped up efforts to address these spikes in crime. In 2023, there were 4,728 arrests (and 4,103 convictions), primarily focused on crimes involving prohibited mail, mail theft, and assaults and robberies of employees.
No More Paper Checks
In response to concerns over thefts of paper checks (as well as costs and delays), the federal government must stop issuing paper checks by September 30 in favor of direct deposit, prepaid cards, or other digital payment options. That’s in line with an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump in March. According to the federal government, historically, Department of the Treasury checks have been 16 times more likely to be reported lost or stolen, returned undeliverable, or altered compared to electronic funds transfers (EFTs).
Last year, 455,601 Americans—about 0.7% of the more than 68 million total recipients—drew Social Security benefits checks.
The numbers are less robust at the IRS. The most recent filing data from the tax agency indicates that approximately 97% of all tax refunds for individual federal income tax returns are issued by direct deposit.
(Despite the push, one group of taxpayers may be out of luck: American taxpayers living abroad. If you live out of the country, your federal income tax refund can only be deposited directly into a U.S. bank or an affiliated account. The Social Security Administration has similar—though a bit more generous—rules for beneficiaries living abroad. You can only direct deposit Social Security payments into a U.S. financial institution or a financial institution in a country with an international direct deposit agreement (a list of these institutions can be found here).
The Executive Order Applies To Payments, Too
The order also applies to receipts—meaning payments that Americans make to the federal government, like tax payments, too. Agencies, including the Treasury, Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and Veterans Affairs, have been directed to “expedite requirements” to receive the payment of federal receipts, including fees, fines, loans, and taxes.
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