An Ohio man has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail while working as a postal employee.
The scheme, which unfolded in May 2022, involved Gregory Drake, 35, of Cleveland, stealing checks from the mail at the Lakewood Post Office and providing them to co-conspirators. These individuals then altered, duplicated, or forged the checks and deposited them into various bank accounts.
The U.S. Postal Service-Office of the Inspector General (USPS-OIG) launched an investigation in May 2022 after numerous businesses in Lakewood, Ohio, reported a surge in stolen checks that had been either mailed in or out of the local post office.
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Court documents revealed that Drake, who was employed as a postal worker at the Lakewood facility during this period, exploited his access to mail in USPS custody to identify and pilfer envelopes containing checks. He then passed these stolen checks on to his co-conspirators.
The investigation culminated on October 6, 2022, when USPS-OIG inspectors caught Drake in the act of stealing two business checks from the mail.
Further investigation uncovered the extensive scope of the conspiracy. Authorities determined that a total of 127 checks were stolen, amounting to a staggering $1,988,715.78 in value.
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