Former USPS Employees Sentenced for $24 Million Check Theft Scheme

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – A former U.S. Postal Service employee was sentenced to prison for her role in a check theft scheme that totaled over $24 million. Nakedra Shannon, 30, who worked as a mail processing clerk in Charlotte, was sentenced to 60 months in prison on February 7, 2025.

Shannon admitted to stealing incoming and outgoing checks while employed by USPS from April to July 2023. She conspired with two co-defendants, Desiray Carter and Donell Gardner, who were each sentenced to 54 months. The sentences follow their guilty pleas related to conspiracy and theft of government property.

According to federal officials, Shannon stole checks from the mail and sold them with her co-conspirators using the Telegram channel OG Glass House. The scheme involved stealing more than $12 million in checks that were posted for sale online and over $8 million in U.S. Treasury checks.

“[Shannon] conspired with Gardner and Carter to steal incoming and outgoing checks from the U.S. mail, which Gardner and Carter then sold to other individuals,” stated U.S. Attorney Dena J. King in a press release. “The defendants obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in criminal proceeds from the mail theft scheme.”

In addition to their prison sentences, the trio was ordered to pay a total of $113,333.87 in restitution. Shannon will serve two years of supervised release following her prison term, while Gardner has three years of supervised release.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, IRS Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Department of Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

“We are grateful for the collaboration of federal and local agencies in this investigation,” King added.