USPS (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
#Roommates, the USPS is often hit with a lot of criticism due to slower speed in comparison to rival delivery services—and this latest news will definitely make that criticism even stronger. According to reports, four USPS postal workers reportedly stole over a thousand credit cards from the mail in conjunction with a $750,000 identity theft ring.
@NYPost reports, 13 people, nine outside suspects and four USPS postal workers, (including three from New York City) were recently indicted by the Manhattan Supreme Court on a host of charges, including conspiracy and grand larceny. The USPS workers are accused of stealing thousands of credit cards from personal mail to support a $750,000 identity theft crime ring. Their crimes allegedly took place between January 2017 and August 2019, as specified by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The named postal workers in the indictment from New York were identified as Kennisha Murrell, 36, Curquan Highsmith, 31, Bruce Bienvenue, 31, and Kenneth Freeman, Jr., 25.
The leader of the organization is said to be 37-year-old Michael Richards, who allegedly swiped more than a thousand credit cards that were then used by other co-conspirators to buy a large collection of high-end goods at luxury retailers. The district attorney’s office stated via press release that “Richards paid the mail carriers different amounts depending on how well the cards they stole performed.”
Additional parts of the identity theft operation also involved allegedly using online databases to retrieve personal identifying information about the cardholders to activate the credit cards. Once those stolen cards were obtained, luxury merchandise was purchased at retailers such as Hermes, Bloomingdale’s, Chanel and Louis Vuitton—then sold for cash or returned to receive a store credit that was also then sold.
Other suspects, Justin Forgenie, 33, of Brooklyn and Tatiana Smith, 34, were responsible for this part of the crime ring.
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