Former USPS employee sentenced to 27 months in jail for stealing $1.9 million in checks

(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — A former United States Postal Service employee in North Carolina was sentenced to 27 months in prison after he allegedly stole over $1.9 million in checks from P.O. boxes, according to federal prosecutors.

Dontavis Romario Truesdale, 28, was sentenced Tuesday to 27 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for financial institution fraud after he “stole $1.9 million in business checks from the post office where he worked,” federal prosecutors said in a press release.

Truesdale pleaded guilty in January.

According to court records, from November 2022 to April 2023, Truesdale worked as a processing clerk at the Ballantyne Post Office in Charlotte, where he allegedly used his position to “steal hundreds of checks of businesses that maintained post office boxes at that location,” federal prosecutors said.

Truesdale then “sold the stolen checks to other co-conspirators who committed bank fraud,” federal prosecutors said.

Over the course of this scheme, Truesdale “stole more than 200 checks with a total face value of over $1.9 million,” federal prosecutors said.

Truesdale was released following the sentencing hearing, but will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons “upon designation of a federal facility,” federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the U.S. Postal Service, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the Office of the Inspector General also assisted in the investigation.

Attorneys for Truesdale and the USPS did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.