An ex-U.S. Postal Service letter carrier from Orange County was sentenced Monday to five and a half years in federal prison for stealing more than $10 million in Treasury and other checks from the mail over four years.
Rashad Deon Stolden, 34, of Huntington Beach, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $1.62 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Stolden — who worked at the Bicentennial Post Office in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles — stole mail containing large value checks, as well as debit cards from the California Employment Development Department, which manages the state’s unemployment insurance program, according to his plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Stolden worked alongside another letter carrier and friend, Charlie Green, 37, of the Wellington Heights area of East Los Angeles, who is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 15. Stolden and Green sold the checks they stole to co-conspirators who used fake IDs to cash them, prosecutors said.
In June 2022, Stolden stole a $7.3 million Treasury check, which he then sold to an accomplice, who negotiated it at a bank in Tennessee, according to court documents.
The accomplice was able to withdraw more than $1 million from the deposit of the check, federal officials said.
Stolden pleaded guilty in April in downtown Los Angeles to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Some of Stolden’s co-conspirators have been prosecuted in separate court proceedings. Both Stolden and Green remain free on $50,000 bond, court papers show.