Ex-Postal Worker From Harford County Sentenced For Stealing Mail

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — A federal judge sentenced a former U.S. postal worker from Harford County to six years in prison for stealing $565,000 in checks, credit cards and bank cards from the mail.

As part of his sentencing, Johnson B. Ogunlana, 25, of Edgewood has also been ordered to pay $232,588 in restitution, federal prosecutors said.

According to authorities, between July 25, 2016 and Feb. 5, 2019, Ogunlana, and his co-conspirator Samson A. Oguntuyi, age 29, of Atlanta, Georgia conspired with others to steal bank checks and credit and debit cards from the mail, open fraudulent business banking accounts using the names of victim businesses and the stolen identities of victim postal customers to negotiate the stolen checks by depositing them into the fraudulent bank accounts, and then conduct transactions with stolen payment cards and with money derived from the stolen checks.

As detailed in the plea agreement, Ogunlana intercepted and stole mail pieces containing credit cards addressed to individual victims and sent photos of the stolen mail pieces and credit cards through a messaging application to Oguntuyi and other conspirators.

Oguntuyi then used the victims’ personal identifying information (“PII”) to activate the stolen credit cards and to obtain new credit cards the victims never requested or applied for. Once the stolen credit cards were activated, members of the conspiracy used the credit cards to make retail purchases.

Members of the conspiracy also registered fraudulent businesses with state government agencies in similar names as the victim businesses. Conspiracy members also used the fraudulent businesses to cash stolen checks, authorities said.

Conspiracy members also used the names and identifying information of postal customer identity theft victims as the agents and/or incorporators of the fraudulent businesses and used stolen payment cards issued to identity theft victims to pay fees to register some of the fraudulent businesses.

Ogunlana stole checks payable to victim businesses, whose mail was serviced out of the USPS facility where Ogunlana worked, by intercepting their mail.

Oguntuyi and Ogunlana then endorsed some of the checks by forging the signatures of identity theft victims and depositing the checks into the fraudulent business bank accounts the conspirators opened in the names of the victim businesses.

The conspirators then withdrew the money from the accounts through cash withdrawals, debit card purchases and cash back transactions at retail merchants, wire transfers, and by writing checks drawn on the accounts.

As detailed in his plea agreement, more than half a million dollars in checks was stolen from two victim businesses and at least eight postal customers were victims of identity theft.