Former Postal Employee Sentenced to Prison for Stealing Nearly $2M Worth of Checks from the Mail

CLEVELAND – Gregory Drake, 35, of Cleveland, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail by a postal employee. The scheme involved stealing checks from the mail and giving them to co-conspirators to alter and deposit at banks.

According to court documents, in May 2022, in Lakewood, Ohio, many businesses began to report a rash of stolen checks that were either mailed in or out of the Lakewood Post Office, which prompted the U.S. Postal Service-Office of the Inspector General (USPS-OIG) to begin an investigation.

During that time and in the months that followed, Drake served as a postal worker in the Lakewood Post Office. Because of his role, he had access to mail that was in the custody of the USPS and was able to identify mail that contained checks. He would then give stolen checks to co-conspirators who would alter, duplicate, or forge them.

On Oct. 6, 2022, USPS-OIG inspectors caught Drake stealing two business checks from the mail.

During the subsequent investigation, authorities discovered that, in total, 127 checks were stolen with a value of $1,988,715.78.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Service-Office of the Inspector General and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Brenna L. Fasko for the Northern District of Ohio.

To report fraud, visit https://www.uspis.gov/report.