A former United States Postal Service letter carrier has been sentenced to 66 months in federal prison for stealing more than $10 million in Treasury and other checks from the mail over a four-year period. Rashad Deon Stolden, 34, of Huntington Beach, received his sentence from United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $1,627,291 in restitution.
Stolden pleaded guilty on April 14 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He was employed at the Bicentennial Post Office in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.
Court documents state that between 2020 and August 2024, Stolden stole mail containing high-value checks as well as debit cards issued by the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which is responsible for administering the state's unemployment insurance program. Stolden worked with another letter carrier and friends, including Charlie Green, 37, from East Los Angeles’ Wellington Heights area. Green is scheduled for sentencing on September 14.
The stolen checks were sold to co-conspirators who used counterfeit identity documents to cash them. Stolden and his associates also acquired personal information of victims so they could activate stolen EDD cards.
In June 2022, Stolden took a $7.3 million Treasury check and sold it to a co-conspirator who negotiated it at a Tennessee bank. According to court records, he wrote messages such as “I need you man,” and “I’m trying to retire.” The co-conspirator withdrew more than $1 million after depositing the check.
Some individuals involved with Stolden have faced prosecution in separate proceedings. Both Stolden and Green remain free on $50,000 bond pending further legal action.
“Nowhere in [Stolden’s] voluminous communications throughout this conspiracy did he express any empathy for his victims even as he stole their EDD cards containing their disability and unemployment benefits,” prosecutors stated in a sentencing memorandum. “[Stolden] seemed to think only of his own profits, trying to decide whether he should use his thefts to pay for a $13,000 hotel stay in Bora Bora, or if he should upgrade to a $20,000 stay in the Presidential Villa at the Conrad.”
The investigation involved several agencies: United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General; United States Postal Inspection Service; U.S. Department of Treasury for Tax Administration; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and Coast Guard Investigative Services.
Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted the case.
