David X. Sullivan, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Ernesto Rodriguez, Jr., a former postal carrier from East Hartford now residing in Tampa, Florida, has pleaded guilty to stealing a U.S. Treasury check from the mail. Rodriguez waived his right to be indicted and entered his plea in Hartford federal court.
Court documents reveal that in 2021, while employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier in Glastonbury, Rodriguez was approached by an acquaintance to intercept federal tax refund checks on his route. He was instructed to deliver these checks to an unknown individual in New York and received approximately $100 per check. Rodriguez provided his acquaintance with information about his route so that refund checks could be sent to specific addresses and was given around 10 names and addresses for checks he was supposed to intercept.
In October 2021, Rodriguez stole a U.S. Treasury tax refund check worth $4,943.17 before it reached its intended recipient on his route. On October 23, 2021, he deposited this check into his wife's bank account and transferred $4,500 from her account to his own two days later for personal use.
Rodriguez resigned from the U.S. Postal Service on October 23, 2021. He admitted to law enforcement that he only stole one check as part of this scheme.
He pleaded guilty to theft of public money, which carries a maximum prison sentence of ten years. Sentencing is scheduled for September 24, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford.
Rodriguez is currently released on a $15,000 bond pending sentencing.
The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel.
