Postal employee and conspirator indicted in scheme to steal over $682,000 in stamps
Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury indicted Marvin Lamont Foster, age 54, of Rosedale, Maryland, and Kyle Mathias, age 23, of Joppa, Maryland, today for conspiracy to steal from the United States Postal Service (USPS), announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
“Anyone who buys stamps at a discount should be on notice of the risk that they are purchasing stolen property,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
According to the indictment, Foster was a window clerk at the Elkridge Post Office, having been employed there since 1998. First class postage stamps are provided by USPS to local post offices packaged in “bricks” which consist of 2,000 stamps valued at $840 per brick and “coils” which consist of 100 stamps valued at $42. The indictment alleges that from June 2008 through March 2009, Foster stole “bricks” and “coils” of stamps from the post office, which he provided to Mathias and others to sell. Mathias sold the stamps through an account he set up on E-bay. The indictment seeks forfeiture of $682,809.11, alleged to be the proceeds of the scheme.
Foster and Mathias face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for their investigative work. Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorneys Sandra Wilkinson and Rachel M. Yasser, who are prosecuting the case.
April 17th, 2009 04:59
As a former USPS window clerk, the accounting process (as plodding as it is) will always win in the end. This enterprise was doomed from the beginning. At least they were ambitious about it dollar wise. The unspoken crime here was E-bay allowing stamps to be brokered on their site.
April 17th, 2009 10:21
Unfortuantely, if it wasn’t for Ebay the accounting process is what would have been doomed. What this article does not tell you is that Mr. Foster was probably stealing stamps several years before June of 2008. In the complaint an Audit was conducted for prior years, and found an enormous amount of stamps were missing, but these can not be tied directly to Foster. However, it is believed he took them.
If it wasn’t for the stupidity of Foster and Mathias taking this scheme to Ebay, it would still be going on.
May 14th, 2009 10:21
a thief is a thief
steal from the company that provides you a liveable wage
go to jail
think about it
May 28th, 2009 16:46
as a current window clerk and one for over 20 years. 30 in all as a clerk i would think audits would have been done more frequently than once a year!!! audits in window clerks should happen at least once a month. they used to be every 3 months prior to the pos 1 system. an audit on the main stock and floor stock done simultaneously should have revealed any inconsistencies long ago. someone dropped the ball. big time.