Mailman Sentenced in Tax Refund Theft Ring

Officials said Manuel Quiles would deliver checks made out to fake people to a network.

A postal carrier from Hartford will spend a year in jail for his role in a scheme to steal between $70,000 and $120,000 in federal tax refund checks.

Officials said a group of people had been stealing Social Security numbers from people in Puerto Rico and filing false federal tax returns and some of the refunds were sent through the U.S. mail.   

Manuel Quiles, 41, worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 12 years and had a postal route in Hartford, according to federal officials.

Officials said he watched out for checks made out to fictitious names on his route. Instead of delivering the tax refund checks to the addresses, he would bring them to one of three people involved in the scheme and collect $300 for each check he delivered.

On Feb. 22, 2011, he was not at work and the carrier filling in could not verify addresses for 26 checks. Per policy, the carrier left them for the regular carrier to verify addresses.

The manager photocopied the envelopes and an investigation began.

After he was spotted delivering the checks to someone outside of the route, investigators approached Quiles, who told investigators that he had been working with three people, according to court documents. 

On June 1, 2011, he pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement of mail by an employee of the U.S. Postal Service.

Quiles was sentenced on Thursday in Bridgeport to 12 months and one day imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for his role in a federal tax refund check theft ring.        

He has also been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $70,000.
  
Federal officials said Josue Mercado acted as a courier between Quiles,

He pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of stolen mail and was sentenced in September to three months in prison.
 

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