$80M In Treasury Checks Stolen From Philly Mail Center, 4 Charged

PHILADELPHIA — Two Philadelphia men and two suburban men have been federally charged with stealing more than $80 million worth of U.S. Treasury checks from a Philadelphia mail facility, according to federal authorities.

Tauheed Tucker, 23, of Philadelphia, Cory Scott, 25, of Ardmore, and Alexander Telewoda, 25, of Clifton Heights, were arrested and charged by superseding indictment with conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds, and mail theft. Saahir Irby, 27, of Philadelphia, was also charged with these crimes, in addition to a previously charged count of mail theft.

The charges stem from a multimillion-dollar scheme to steal U.S. Treasury checks from a local U.S. Postal Service facility and then resell those checks to purchasers around the country

As laid out in a superseding indictment, authorities allege Irby and Tucker, while working as USPS mail processing clerks, stole thousands of envelopes containing U.S. Treasury checks from mail sorting machines at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center between June 2023 and September 2024.

Federal authorities said they took the checks from the USPS facility and sold them to Scott and Telewoda.

They said Scott and Telewoda then advertised the stolen checks for resale on the cloud-based instant messaging application Telegram. After getting paid by interested buyers, Scott and Telewoda mailed the stolen checks to buyers around the country, who attempted to cash the checks without the knowledge or permission of the individuals to whom the checks had originally been issued, according to officials.

Irby and Tucker sold Scott and Telewoda thousands of stolen Treasury checks whose face value exceeded $80 million, authorities said.

Scott’s and Telewoda’s customers successfully negotiated approximately $11 million worth of these stolen checks at financial institutions, according to authorities.

Irby is also charged with a separate instance of mail theft involving another batch of treasury checks that he is accused of stealing and selling to an unnamed individual in August 2024.

If convicted, Irby faces a maximum possible sentence of 25 in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $1 million fine. Tucker, Scott, and Telewoda each face a maximum possible sentence of 20 in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $750,000 fine.