NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Three Queens USPS workers have been charged as a result of a months-long, multimillion dollar unemployment theft scheme linked to stealing COVID-19 benefits in 2020, federal prosecutors said Monday.
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This comes after over 700 pieces of stolen state Department of Labor mail were found in an abandoned Yonkers hotel room that December.
According to the criminal complaints, Oscar Abreu, Rafael Grullon and Aldo Palomino Jr. accepted cash bribe payments to intercept and steal mail in their capacity as postal workers, sent by the NYS DOL to specific addresses along their assigned postal routes.
The NYS DOL mail that was taken was connected to a scam that Yohauris Rodriguez Hernandez, the alleged ringleader, and others devised to get COVID-19 unemployment benefits by filing and verifying false benefit applications using the names and social security numbers of hundreds of other people.
The scheme required numerous addresses to which Rodriguez Hernandez and her co-conspirators could direct NYS DOL mailings related to the fraudulent claims.
Initially, Rodriguez Hernandez initially approached Abreu and offered $200 for every NYS DOL envelope he intercepted and turned over, but federal prosecutors said that offer increased to $500.
Abreu eventually recruited Grullon and Palomino into the scheme, with Rodriguez Hernandez agreeing to pay $200 per NYS DOL envelope that Grullon and Palomino Jr. intercepted — $100 of which Abreu retained.
The plot collapsed after Rodriguez Hernandez and another suspect fled the Yonkers hotel, leaving behind in their previously occupied room over 700 pieces of NYS DOL mail, containing, among other items, benefit debit cards.
The pair had requested the hotel allow them to stay in their room, but were forced to move due to a previous booking, The Journal News reported.
They switched rooms, then realized they left the mail in the old room and tried to get it back, according to the report. However, Yonkers police had already been called. When the duo saw police arrive, they allegedly tried to flee but were stopped down the block.
Prosecutors said that the stash was tied to over 500 unemployment benefit claims seeking in excess of $16 million in benefits, around $3 million of which had already been disbursed by December 2020.
"It is a sad day when postal employees allegedly aid other conspirators to commit identify theft," said Daniel B. Brubaker, New York inspector-in-charge of the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service. "Their actions affected hundreds of innocent victims by enabling their fellow criminals to illegally receive Covid-19 unemployment benefits through the U.S Mail. These Letter Carriers have betrayed the public and showed a total disregard for honesty and the public trust that was placed with them."
Abreu, Grullon and Palomino Jr. are charged with conspiracy to commit theft and receipt of stolen mail, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, theft of mail by Postal officer or employee, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and conspiracy to receive bribes, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Rodriguez Hernandez was charged in January, the Journal News reported. She was convicted last year of illegally re-entering the country following her deportation to her native Dominican Republic due to a prior federal fraud conviction.
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