Four Defendants, Including Two Former U.S. Postal Service Employees, Charged in Connection with Scheme to Steal $80 Million in U.S. Treasury Checks

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Tauheed Tucker, 23, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Cory Scott, 25, of Ardmore, Pa., and Alexander Telewoda, 25, of Clifton Heights, Pa., were arrested and charged by superseding indictment with conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds, and mail theft, arising from a multimillion-dollar scheme to steal U.S. Treasury checks from a local U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) facility and then resell those checks to purchasers around the country. A fourth defendant, Saahir Irby, 27, of Philadelphia, was also charged with these offenses, in addition to a previously charged count of mail theft.

The superseding indictment 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.

According to the indictment, Irby and Tucker removed the checks from the USPS facility and sold them to defendants Scott and Telewoda, who then advertised the stolen checks for resale on the cloud-based instant messaging application Telegram. Upon receiving payment from interested buyers, Scott and Telewoda mailed the stolen Treasury checks to buyers around the country who attempted to cash the checks, without the knowledge or permission of the individuals to whom the checks had originally been issued.

Over the course of the scheme, the indictment alleges, Irby and Tucker sold Scott and Telewoda thousands of stolen Treasury checks whose face value exceeded $80 million. Scott’s and Telewoda’s customers successfully negotiated approximately $11 million worth of these stolen Treasury checks at financial institutions. Irby is also charged with a separate instance of mail theft involving another batch of Treasury checks that he allegedly stole and sold to an unnamed individual in August 2024.

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.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, with substantial assistance from the Montgomery County Detectives Bureau, the Lower Merion Township Police Department, and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Rice.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.