los angeles: A former letter carrier for the united states postal service (usps) pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for conspiring to steal more than $250,000 in unemployment insurance (ui) funds by making false claims of covid-related job losses and by stealing ui debit cards meant for others on your mail route.
stephen glover, 32, of palmdale, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and mail theft by an officer or employee.
According to his plea agreement, from August 2020 to June 2021, while working at the United States Post Office in Valencia, Glover planned to defraud the California Employment Development Department (EDD) out of hundreds of thousands dollars in covid -19 unemployment benefits related to the pandemic. Glover’s accomplices applied for unemployment benefits from Edd using false statements and sometimes using stolen identities. Based on the fraudulent claims, Edd sent debit cards to the addresses listed on the applications.
The fraudulent UI claims were funded by the federal government through programs authorized by Congress in response to the pandemic, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Lost Wage Assistance (LWAP) programs.
glover admitted to abusing his position as a USPS mail carrier by providing co-cheaters’ addresses in his mail route, which his co-cheaters then used as mailing addresses in the scam edd applications. after edd sent debit cards to those addresses, glover intercepted and stole that mail.
glover also admitted to stealing legitimate edd debit cards destined for recipients on his mail route. glover used edd debit cards in other people’s names to withdraw thousands of dollars in cash from ATMs. He also activated debit cards in other people’s names by calling Edd and using pins he had discovered in Edd’s stolen mail. During a search of his girlfriend’s residence in June 2021, police found 37 pieces of mail from Edd’s address to 15 different people.
The total expected loss related to the glover mail fraud scheme is $270,698.
glover also admitted to stealing more than 10 personal and business checks payable to third parties and not related to the covid-19 pandemic, totaling approximately $23,266. In connection with these checks, glover admitted to stealing approximately 40 pieces of mail.
united states district judge percy anderson has scheduled a sentencing hearing for september 19, at which time glover will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison on the mail fraud charge and five years in federal prison on the mail theft charge.
In a related case, Travis Mckenzie, 26, of Valencia, an accomplice who lived on Glover’s mail route, is scheduled to plead guilty on July 13 to a three-count information fraud charge. mail, mail theft, and identity theft.
mckenzie admitted in his guilty plea that police found more than 150 pieces of mail from edd addressed to more than 50 different names, as well as mail from the virginia employment commission, at his residence. Mckenzie also admitted using cash withdrawn from ATMs with EDD debit cards to purchase items from luxury retailers, including Louis Vuitton and Prada handbags from luxury retailers Nieman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
The predicted loss applicable to Mckenzie’s involvement in the mail fraud is approximately $577,522. Mckenzie further admitted to possessing 317 pieces of stolen mail.
Upon pleading guilty, Mckenzie will face a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.
the office of the inspector general of the united states department of labor, the office of the inspector general of the united states postal service, the investigations of the california department of employment development and the los angeles county sheriff’s department investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Charles E. pell of the santa ana branch is processing these cases.
Anyone with information about fraud complaints related to COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or through the NCDF Web Complaint Form. at: https://www .justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.