Baltimore, Maryland – Breanna Lee Cartledge, age 28, of Clinton, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, in connection with a scheme to defraud financial institutions by creating fake checks using information Cartledge intercepted as a Clerk with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland and Acting Special Agent in Charge Peter Brown of the U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG).
According to her guilty plea, Cartledge utilized her position as a USPS employee to wrongfully access USPS money orders and individual mail to illegally obtain the personal information of victim individuals and businesses, which she and her co-conspirators used without the victims’ authorization.
For example, after a co-conspirator texted Cartledge requesting pictures of checks, Cartledge sent the co-conspirator images of at least nine separate money orders or checks that contained personal identifying information with the intent that the information be used to create fake checks to steal from victim accounts.