Four Defendants, Including Two Former U.S. Postal Service Employees, Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to Steal $84 Million in U.S. Treasury Checks

PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that four defendants: Saahir Irby, 28, and Tauheed Tucker, 24, both of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Cory Scott, 26, of Ardmore, Pa., and Alexander Telewoda, 26, of Clifton Heights, Pa., have entered pleas of guilty before United States District Judge Joshua D. Wolson on charges of conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds, and mail theft.

As detailed in court filings and statements, between June 2023 and September 2024, Irby and Tucker, while working as United States Postal Service ("USPS") mail processing clerks, stole thousands of envelopes containing U.S. Treasury checks from mail sorting machines at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. Irby and Tucker removed the checks from the USPS facility and sold them to defendants Scott and Telewoda, who then advertised the stolen checks for resale on the cloud-based instant messaging application Telegram. Upon receiving payment from interested buyers, Scott and Telewoda mailed the stolen Treasury checks to buyers around the country who attempted to cash the stolen checks.

Over the course of the scheme, Irby and Tucker sold Scott and Telewoda thousands of stolen Treasury checks whose face value exceeded $84 million. Scott's and Telewoda's customers successfully negotiated approximately $11 million worth of these stolen Treasury checks at financial institutions. A grand jury returned a superseding indictment against the four defendants in May 2025; Irby was previously charged with - and has pleaded guilty to - a separate instance of mail theft involving another batch of Treasury checks that he stole and sold to an unnamed individual in August 2024.

Irby, Tucker, and Telewoda are scheduled to be sentenced in August, and Scott in September. Irby faces a maximum possible term of 25 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $1,000,000 fine, while the remaining defendants each face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years' imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $750,000 fine.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, with substantial assistance from the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, the Lower Merion Township Police Department, and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Rice.