USPS mail carrier arrested for alleged scheme to steal $800K in jobless benefits

A United States Postal Service mail service from Palmdale was arrested Thursday for allegedly scheming to steal about $800,000 in unemployment insurance coverage funds by utilizing false claims of COVID-related job losses and stealing debit playing cards from the U.S. mail, officers stated.

Stephen Glover, 32, who labored on the Valencia publish workplace, and Travis McKenzie, 26, of Valencia, who lived on Glover’s mail supply route, are anticipated to make their preliminary court docket appearances Thursday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles.

A felony criticism filed on Might 13 and unsealed after Thursday’s arrests expenses each Glover and McKenzie with one rely of mail fraud, in keeping with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Central District of California.

From August 2020 to February 2021, Glover and McKenzie fraudulently obtained debit playing cards issued by the California Employment Improvement Division (EDD), which administers the state’s unemployment insurance coverage program, in keeping with the affidavit in help of the felony criticism.

The debit playing cards have been issued based mostly on purposes for pandemic-related unemployment advantages submitted utilizing roughly 50 stolen identities and containing false statements claiming COVID-related job losses, the affidavit states.

The EDD debit playing cards have been issued within the names of victims, a few of whom had by no means resided in, labored in, and even visited California.

Glover and McKenzie allegedly break up the money withdrawn utilizing the EDD debit playing cards, a few of which had balances exceeding $30,000, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace stated.

The scheme allegedly concerned greater than 50 fraudulent claims to EDD, which resulted in EDD issuing playing cards that had roughly $798,733 in funds in these names, of which at the least $318,771 has been withdrawn from the debit playing cards, in keeping with a information launch.

Glover additionally allegedly stole mail containing greater than $20,000 in private and enterprise checks belonging to others, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace stated.

Regulation enforcement executed search warrants on the residences of Glover, McKenzie, and Glover’s girlfriend within the spring of 2021, throughout which they discovered greater than 200 items of stolen and EDD-related mail, together with greater than 15 EDD debit playing cards, in keeping with the affidavit.

Along with defrauding the California EDD, Glover and McKenzie’s scheme additionally fraudulently obtained debit playing cards from the Virginia Employment Fee, the affidavit alleges.

If convicted of the mail fraud offense alleged within the criticism, Glover and McKenzie would every face a statutory most sentence of 20 years in federal jail.

The matter was investigated by the U.S. Division of Labor Workplace of Inspector Normal, the U.S. Postal Service Workplace of Inspector Normal, the California Employment Improvement Division Investigations, and the L.A. Sheriff’s Division.