Greenbelt, Maryland – On May 2, 2024, U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby sentenced Alexus Paige Tyson, age 28, a resident of Hyattsville, Maryland, to 15 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for participation in a conspiracy whereby she used her position as a United States Postal Service (“USPS”) mail carrier to wrongfully access checks, money orders, and personal mail put into the mail by victims. That information was then used by a co-conspirator, Travis Nnamani, to create counterfeit checks to take money from victims’ bank accounts. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Griggsby ordered Tyson to pay restitution of $129,967.22 to her victims.
According to her plea agreement, between August 2019 and October, 2020, Tyson assisted Nnamani to create fraudulent checks using victims’ personal information that Tyson and others at the United States Postal Service took from checks and other documents that victims placed into the mail system. In many instances, checks or other documents mailed by victims were photographed by Tyson or other USPS employees and then the documents were put back into the mail with the victims not knowing their information had been stolen. That information would then be used by Nnamani to create false checks using that information to access funds in victims’ bank accounts.
Tyson also played a role as a recruiter of other employees at the USPS to engage in similar conduct, including selling federal stimulus checks they took from the mail.
Tyson was the last of three defendants, including Nnamani and another USPS postal worker, Breanna Cartledge, to be sentenced in this case.
United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the United States Postal Inspection Service for their work in the investigation. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren S. Gardner, who prosecuted the federal case.