3 Sentenced in $121 Million Theft of U.S. Treasury Checks

By Alex Rose
Daily Times, Primos, Pa.
(TNS)

Three men who conspired to steal $121 million in U.S. Treasury checks have been sentenced for their roles in the scheme, joining a Delaware County man who was sentenced in August.

Saahir Irby, 28, Philadelphia, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Joshua D. Wolson to 63 months of incarceration with three years of supervised release. Irby was also ordered to forfeit $72,510.

Tauheed Tucker, 25, Philadelphia, was also sentenced Monday to 42 months in prison with three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $2,628,984 restitution and forfeiture of $28,200.

Cory Scott, 26, Ardmore, was sentenced last week to 70 months in prison and three years of supervised release with $298,973 forfeiture.

Alexander Telewoda, 26, Clifton Heights, was sentenced in August to 78 months in prison, three years of supervised release and forfeiture of $162,144.

Irby, Tucker and Telewoda were also ordered to pay restitution of $10,842.

The defendants were charged in May 2025 with conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds and mail theft under a superseding indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

According to information provided by U.S. Attorney David Metcalf:

Irby and Tucker worked as mail processing clerks for the United States Postal Service at the Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center.

From June 2023 to September 2024, they stole thousands of envelopes containing U.S. Treasury checks from mail sorting machines, removed the checks from the facility and sold them to Scott and Telewoda.

Those defendants then advertised the stolen checks for resale on the cloud-based instant messaging application Telegram.

Scott and Telewoda mailed the stolen checks to buyers from around the country who attempted to cash them without the knowledge or permission of the people the checks had actually been issued to.

The total face value of stolen checks exceeded $84 million. Buyers of the stolen checks were able to cash them for approximately $11 million at financial institutions, all told.

All four defendants pleaded guilty earlier this year conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds, and mail theft.

“Even after Irby and Tucker were fired from the Postal Service, Telewoda wasn’t discouraged from his crimes,” according to a release from Metcalf. “He found a replacement source of stolen Treasury checks and continued to advertise and resell them. By the time of his arrest in June 2025, Telewoda had been tied to stolen Treasury checks with an aggregate face value totaling more than $121 million, including more than $3 million in stolen checks recovered from his home on the day of his arrest.”

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, FBI, Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, Montgomery County Detective Bureau, Lower Merion Township Police Department and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Rice prosecuted.

Photo credit: Social Security Administration/Facebook

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