A former Indiana letter carrier has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for stealing checks from the mail in a $34 million bank fraud scheme that hit about 6,500 victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana says Destinee Ruffin, 29, of Indianapolis also got two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail.

Ruffin worked at the Bacon Station Post Office in Indianapolis, where she took checks from incoming and outgoing mail between April of 2020 and May of 2022 and sold them to co-conspirators.

The buyers changed the payee names and ran the checks through the bank accounts of people who handed over debit cards, PINs or online banking logins.

Ruffin supplied John Young, 24, with more than $12 million in stolen checks and sold Tony McMullen, 36, more than $235,000 worth.

The case began in the spring of 2020 when a Bacon Station customer complained that an Economic Impact Payment check never arrived, and more complaints led agents to Ruffin’s route.

Investigators later mailed controlled Treasury checks with recorded serial numbers and traced them back to her.

A search of her home, vehicle and devices in April of 2024 turned up thousands of unsold stolen checks worth more than $20 million, with stolen mail piled in closets, in corners and even in the bathroom.

One victim found out her $1,618 payment to keep her retired husband’s health insurance never arrived when she showed up for surgery and was told her coverage had been terminated, forcing the procedure to be canceled.

Says U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler,

“Destinee Ruffin’s crimes were not isolated acts of theft; they represented a sweeping scheme that touched thousands of households and eroded a fundamental public trust. By stealing millions of dollars’ worth of checks from the mail, Ruffin and her co-conspirators disrupted critical benefits, jeopardized family finances, and caused real harm to individuals who depended on timely delivery for essential needs.”

Ruffin was also ordered to pay $121,270.30 in restitution.

Three of her co-conspirators have already been sentenced, and Young is set to be sentenced on December 3rd.

The Daily Hodl reported on Ruffin’s guilty plea in October.

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The post USPS Insider Who Stole Checks in $34,000,000 Fraud Scheme Hitting About 6,500 Victims Gets Six and a Half Years in Prison appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Federal prosecutors have secured a guilty plea from a Washington resident accused of running a years-long romance scam that drained over $333,000 from a Portland victim.

Rithy Ham, 45, of Vancouver, Washington, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

The scheme ran from September 2020 through May 2024 and relied on invented identities of two women who supposedly needed cash for daily bills, nursing school costs and escape from sex trafficking.

“Believing the women were real and in danger, the victim sent money on multiple occasions.”

The victim sent repeated payments after receiving messages from both Ham and the fabricated profiles.

One transfer of $36,872.35 occurred in November 2022, and another $20,922 came from a retirement account in March 2023.

Ham and his wife controlled the accounts that received the funds, and part of the proceeds paid for an $18,500 check to his wife.

“In total, Ham stole $333,249.52 from the victim, much of it from the victim’s retirement savings.”

Under the plea deal, Ham must repay the full amount and faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and up to 10 years on the money laundering count.

The FBI conducted the investigation.

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The post Washington Resident Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud in $333,249 Romance Scam appeared first on The Daily Hodl.