Former Los Angeles U.S. Postal Service letter carrier sentenced to 5 years in prison for mail theft

A former Los Angeles United States Postal Service letter carrier was sentenced on Monday to five-and-a-half years in federal prison for stealing millions in Treasury and other checks from the mail over four years.

Rashad Deon Stolden, 34, of Huntington Beach, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. In sentencing arguments, prosecutors said Stolden used some of the stolen funds for luxury vacation accommodations, and noted to one co-conspirator that he was "trying to retire."

From 2020 through August 2024, Stolden stole more than $10 million through mail theft, obtaining large-value checks, as well as debit cards from the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which manages the state's unemployment insurance program, according to his plea agreement and court documents.

Stolden worked at the Bicentennial Post Office in the Fairfax district, and another letter carrier, Charlie Green, 37, of the Wellington Heights area of East Los Angeles, conspired with him. Green is scheduled for sentencing on September 14.

Prosecutors said Stolden and Green sold the stolen checks to other co-conspirators who then used counterfeit identity documents to negotiate them. Stolden and his co-conspirators purchased the identifying information of victims so that they could activate their stolen EDD cards.

In June 2022, Stolden stole a $7.3 million Treasury check and sold that check to a co-conspirator, writing him, "I need you man," "I'm trying to retire," according to court documents. The co-conspirator was able to negotiate the check at a bank in Tennessee and withdraw more than $1 million at the time of the check's deposit.

"Nowhere in (Stolden's) voluminous communications throughout this conspiracy did he express any empathy for his victims even as he stole their EDD cards containing their disability and unemployment benefits," prosecutors argued at sentencing. "(Stolden) seemed to think only of his own profits, trying to decide whether he should use his thefts to pay for a $13,000 hotel stay in Bora Bora, or if he should upgrade to a $20,000 stay in the Presidential Villa at the Conrad."

The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Department of Treasury for Tax Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Coast Guard Investigative Services investigated this matter.