Mass. males sentenced to jail for mail theft, verify fraud scheme

Two Massachusetts males have been sentenced to time in federal jail for fraudulently depositing checks stolen from the mail, prosecutors stated.

Imanol Rios-Franco, 26, of Canton, and Brandon Baez, 23, of North Attleborough, each pleaded responsible in November 2025 to financial institution fraud, conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, and conspiracy to steal and possess stolen mail, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Massachusetts stated in a assertion.

Rios-Franco was sentenced Feb. 10 to 35 months in jail, adopted by one yr of supervised launch. He was additionally ordered to pay $12,528 in restitution, based on prosecutors.

Baez was sentenced Feb. 12 to 2 years in jail, adopted by 5 years of supervised launch. He was ordered to pay $10,285 in restitution, prosecutors stated.

From no less than June 2023 by way of February 2024, Rios-Franco, Baez, and a number of unnamed co-conspirators stole mailed checks from USPS assortment bins, based on the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace. They then washed the hand-written ink from the checks “utilizing commercially accessible chemical substances.”

The stolen checks had been reissued to the co-conspirators or different financial institution accounts that they managed and fraudulently deposited, based on prosecutors. The defendants and their co-conspirators then withdrew the fraudulently obtained funds from ATMs or by way of cash orders.

Investigators reviewed the co-conspirators’ cellphones and located that they’d collaborated to plan the scheme collectively, prosecutors stated.