A former postal employee is accused of stealing greater than $330,000 from individuals of their 70s and 80s — after which utilizing that stolen money to pay for a pool patio, Caribbean cruise bills, escorts, and extra.
Pembroke man Scott Kelley, 51, additionally allegedly stole money from an proof locker after which blamed one other postal inspector for the lacking money.
Kelley was arrested by the feds on Friday and was charged in a 45-count indictment returned by a Boston grand jury. That features 23 counts of cash laundering.
Kelley was a postal inspector on the Boston Division headquarters of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the regulation enforcement arm of the Postal Service. He was the staff chief of the Mail Fraud Unit, which investigated lottery and different scams that focused senior residents and different weak populations.
In the meantime, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service was working a crime-prevention program — referred to as Jamaican Operations Linked to Telemarketing (JOLT) — to disrupt mail fraud scams originating in Jamaica that focused U.S. residents with false guarantees of sweepstakes or lottery winnings.
Posing as lottery representatives, scammers contacted weak victims and persuaded them to mail funds to pay “fees” or “taxes” that they supposedly wanted to entrance earlier than they might accumulate their prize.
Postal inspectors engaged on the JOLT program had been licensed to intercept packages suspected to have been despatched by rip-off victims. Nonetheless, they had been licensed to open a bundle solely with the sender’s consent — in any other case, they had been required to mail the bundle again to the sender.
If a sender allowed USPIS to open the bundle and it contained money, the inspector was required to rely the money with one other inspector current as a witness — after which have the money transformed into an official examine payable to the sender.
In line with the indictment, Kelley allegedly used misleading emails to trigger postal staff to intercept packages {that a} USPIS algorithm had flagged as seemingly having been mailed by JOLT rip-off victims after which ship them to him.
In complete, Kelley allegedly requested that about 1,950 packages get intercepted and mailed to him. Kelley allegedly opened intercepted parcels that appeared or felt like they may include money, and he’s accused of stealing any money inside.
The typical age of the victims was 75, with the oldest sufferer being 82. The victims mailed between $1,400 and $19,100 money.
Kelley allegedly met with one sufferer in particular person and instructed them that that he didn’t know what had occurred with their bundle, and that their loss was their very own fault as a result of they’d mailed money.
He additionally allegedly used a postal worker’s keypad code to unlock and enter an proof vault at USPIS. As soon as inside, Kelley allegedly used one other postal inspector’s key to open an proof locker and steal $7,000 in money.
He then allegedly wrote a memo blaming the opposite postal inspector for the lacking $7,000, which resulted in a USPS Workplace of Inspector Basic investigation. Kelley is accused of mendacity to investigators when questioned in regards to the stolen money, and he positioned the blame on the opposite postal inspector – who was considered one of his direct stories.
Kelley allegedly deposited and spent virtually $340,000 money – and did so in methods designed to cover the truth that he had stolen it. He allegedly used virtually $160,000 of the stolen money to purchase postal cash orders, most of which he deposited into his personal financial institution accounts or used to pay bank card payments.
On greater than 20 of these cash orders, Kelley allegedly tried to cover the truth that he was each the payee and the purchaser by falsely itemizing sure relations because the purchasers. He deposited over $130,000 of the stolen money into his financial institution accounts, however allegedly tried to keep away from financial institution suspicion by spreading the deposits over 60 dates utilizing 4 completely different financial institution accounts at two separate banks.
Kelley allegedly used a few of the stolen money to pay for: the set up of a patio round his pool ($20,500); heating his pool ($2,000); a granite countertop put in on his outside bar ($2,800); lights put in round his pool and outside bar ($4,888); bar drinks and different bills from three Caribbean cruises ($4,300); and sexual providers supplied by two escorts who he texted utilizing a burner cellphone and who he met throughout workdays ($15,400).
He was indicted on 5 counts of wire fraud; 5 counts of mail fraud; 5 counts of mail theft by a postal officer; one rely of theft of presidency cash; 23 counts of cash laundering; one rely of structuring to evade reporting necessities; and 5 counts of submitting false tax returns.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace is urging individuals who imagine they might be victims of this case or different elder fraud scams to contact [email protected].
Suspected mail fraud can be reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on-line or by calling 877-876-2455.
