ST. LOUIS – A Ferguson, Missouri, man who orchestrated a plot to steal checks from U.S. mail appeared in federal court on Thursday to be sentenced.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Dareon Graham, 23, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit mail theft, bank fraud, and possession of stolen mail matter.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Graham to 27 months in federal prison.
Graham admitted that he obtained a stolen mail collection box key in 2022 and then gave that key to Tyrell Hardin. Graham agreed to pay Hardin to steal mail from certain collection boxes in and around St. Louis County.
Hardin would give the stolen mail to Graham, who’d open the mail and remove the checks.
Prosecutors said Graham recruited account holders at local banks and credit unions to deposit the stolen checks after Graham had altered them.
Graham either deposited or oversaw the deposit of fraudulent checks totaling at least $103,457; he obtained $46,434 in proceeds from the scheme.
Co-defendant Hardin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail theft and two counts of mail theft.
