CLEVELAND (WKBN) — A former postal worker in the Cleveland area was sentenced in federal court Wednesday after stealing nearly $2 million in checks from the mail.
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Gregory Drake, 35, of Cleveland, was sentenced to 41 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail by a postal employee.
Investigators said Drake stole the checks from the mail and gave them to co-conspirators to alter and deposit at banks.
Authorities started to look into the thefts in 2022 after several businesses in Lakewood began to report a rash of stolen checks that were either mailed in or out of the Lakewood Post Office, which prompted the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General (USPS-OIG) to begin an investigation…