Connecticut Resident Sentenced to Eight Years for Masterminding $55,000,000 Check Fraud Ring
Federal prosecutors have secured an eight-year prison sentence for the leader of a scheme that stole thousands of checks from U.S. Postal Service collection boxes and deposited millions in altered funds.
Michael Edwards, 31, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl in the Southern District of New York, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The scheme ran from January 2022 through July 2024 and involved more than 2,600 stolen checks, with intended losses exceeding $55 million, of which more than $18 million was deposited.
Edwards worked with others to obtain postal keys that provided access to collection boxes in affluent Manhattan neighborhoods.
After stealing checks, Edwards and his co-conspirators altered the names of the payees and, in some cases, the amounts written on the checks.
Prosecutors also say Edwards helped recruit people willing to provide their bank account information and oversaw the deposit of millions of dollars in fraudulently altered checks into accounts across Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
Says U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald,
“For more than two years, Michael Edwards criminally utilized the U.S. mail system to steal millions of dollars from Americans who rely on it by obtaining postal keys, stealing thousands of checks from the mail, washing those checks, and depositing the fraudulent checks or posting them for sale on Telegram. Even after his arrest, Edwards kept operating his illicit business on Telegram and obstructed justice by deleting his Telegram posts. Today’s prison sentence is indicative of the result awaiting those who breach the U.S. mail system to steal from everyday Americans.”
On top of the prison sentence, Edwards received three years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $18,840,084.45 while paying restitution.
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