-Angelot Ndongmo-

Cousins!

Looks like some USPS postal workers along the East Coast were in their bags…literally. Police put the paws on them and their co-conspirators December 8, placing all under arrest for pillaging their customers’ packages and raiding them for credit cards and personal information as part of an expansive identity theft ring.

Black Enterprise reports this sophisticated criminal ring was valued at a whopping $750,000! As per the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in the New York State Supreme Court, ten suspects were rounded up and indicted on many charges including second-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree conspiracy. Four of the ten worked as post office employees.

The postal worker pirates were called out and named in a statement released from the district attorney’s office: 

“37 year old Michael Richards from Manhattan, was the mastermind. 36 year old Kennisha Murrell, 31 year old Curquan Highsmith and 31 year old Bruce Bienvenue are all from Brooklyn, while 25 year old Kenneth Freeman, Jr. is from Maryland. They allegedly snatched over 1,000 credit cards from batches of mail deliveries made in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Burke, Virginia between January 2017 and  August 2019!” 

The named suspects had additional help slipping out with victims’ credit cards. They leaned on 38 year old Shamar Haughton who was responsible for receiving the illegally obtained loot., 33 year old Justin Forgenie got into personal information databases from companies such as Transunion. Once obtained, Forgenie made the pass over to Richards, who stayed busy playing hot potato with the stolen cards that he would toss over to 34 year old Atatiana Smith. Smith stepped up to make bougie purchases from the crème de la crème retailers themselves. She indulged in Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdale’s, Hermes, Chanel and Neiman Marcus. As long as the items could be rapidly resold for cash in hand, she would swipe the stolen cards.

The last two accused were already bosses of their own jewelry store. They were the final leg of the crime ring’s deviant side hustle, 34 year old Suzana and 39 year old Daniel Mikhaylova looked the other way, allowing unauthorized purchases to be made at their store called ‘The Watch Standard’.

In February 2019, came the moment of ‘les jeux sont faits’ aka game’s up for the brazen bunch. A credit card company sang like a whistle to the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) when they noticed a lot of their customers were complaining of missing credit cards. USPIS launched an investigation and were slick with it. They gave the bandits enough rope to get them feeling real comfortable, so they would predictably hang themselves with it.

Manhattan D.A. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. gave his thoughts on the case stating, “This holiday season, we know that identity thieves will be targeting not just our inboxes, but our mailboxes.

So, we’re putting scammers on notice: the Manhattan D.A.’s Office has the expertise, resources, and partnerships in cybercrime and identity theft to find you and hold you accountable,” he warned.

“We will continue to work hand-in-hand with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the NYPD to stamp out fraud and protect the integrity of a service relied upon by millions of New Yorkers.”

Suddenly, random missing packages and mail en route don’t feel so random these days. Cousins! Have you lost any confidence in any of our mail services? Comment below!