A former Los Angeles US Postal Service letter carrier was sentenced to five and a half years in federal prison on Monday for stealing millions of dollars in Treasury and other checks from the mail over a four-year period.
Rashad Deon Stolden, 34, of Huntington Beach, pled guilty earlier this year to one count of conspiracy to conduct financial fraud. In sentencing arguments, prosecutors stated that Stolden spent part of the stolen funds for luxurious holiday lodgings and informed one co-conspirator that he was “trying to retire.”
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Stolden stole more than $10 million through mail theft from 2020 to August 2024, obtaining large-value checks and debit cards from the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which manages the state’s unemployment insurance program, according to his plea agreement and court documents.
Stolden worked at the Bicentennial Post Office in the Fairfax district, and he collaborated with Charlie Green, 37, a letter carrier from East Los Angeles’ Wellington Heights neighborhood. Green’s sentence is slated for September 14.
According to prosecutors, Stolden and Green sold the stolen checks to other conspirators, who then negotiated them with phony identity documents. Stolden and his accomplices bought victims’ identification information so that they could use their stolen EDD cards.
According to court filings, Stolden stole a $7.3 million Treasury check in June 2022 and sold it to a co-conspirator, saying, “I need you, man,” and “I’m trying to retire.” The co-conspirator was able to negotiate the check at a Tennessee bank, withdrawing more than $1 million after the check was deposited.
The US Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the US Postal Inspection Service, the US Department of Treasury for Tax Administration, US Customs and Border Protection, and the Coast Guard Investigative Services all looked into the situation.
