SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – William Soto, age 32, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was sentenced to serve 24 months in federal prison following his conviction for twelve (12) counts of theft of government property, United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the Boston Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) announced.
As part of his previous guilty plea, Soto admitted that, while on supervised release for a 2021 federal conviction for distributing controlled substances, he used fraudulent checks to purchase more than $30,000 worth of United States Postal Service postage stamps over the course of two days in Oneida County, Oswego County, and Onondaga County in August 2023. Soto stole stamps from 12 different Post Offices, and, in one instance, he bought $9,438.00 in stamps from a post office in Oswego County using a fake check.
United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also ordered that Soto pay $31,101.84 in restitution to the United States Postal Service, be subject to a forfeiture judgement in the amount of $31,101.84, and to serve a three-year term of post-incarceration supervised release. In addition to the 24-month prison sentence, Soto was also sentenced to a consecutive 20-month term of imprisonment for violating the conditions of his supervised release from his prior offense.
The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) investigated the case with assistance from the Fulton Police Department. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Tuck prosecuted the case.