Sicklerville Man Led Scheme To Defraud USPS Out Of $100K: Authorities

A U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee from Sicklerville and three other people have been charged with stealing blank money orders to the tune of $100,000, authorities said on Wednesday.

Marc Saunders, 39, of Sicklerville, is charged by complaint with stealing a money order imprinting machine and over 180 blank USPS money orders in order to defraud the USPS, U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced. Saunders is accused of presenting them and providing them to others, knowing that they were issued unlawfully.

Anthony J. Bell, 38, Andre M. Sutton, 39, both of Philadelphia, and Eugene J. Bowen, 35, of Knoxville, Tennessee, are charged by complaint with defrauding the USPS by presenting the stolen money orders and providing them to others, knowing that they were issued unlawfully.

Saunders, Bell, and Sutton were arrested on Wednesday. Bowen is still at large, according to authorities.
Saunders worked at the New Lisbon, New Jersey, USPS branch in 2014, according to the complaints. Late last year, law enforcement learned that a money order imprinting machine and more than 180 blank money orders previously issued to that branch were missing.

In 2015, authorities say some of the stolen blank money orders surfaced after having been imprinted with dollar amounts and cashed at different USPS branches in the Philadelphia area. By the end of 2016, they say about 130 of those money orders had been cashed.

Detectives were able to establish links between people who cashed some of those money orders and Bell, Bowen, and Sutton, according to authorities. From there, the middlemen were linked to Saunders through Facebook posts, telephone records, and other evidence, authorities said.

A number of the stolen money orders were cashed in the Knoxville area right after Bowen visited Saunders in New Jersey and returned to Tennessee, according to authorities.

The count of stealing a money order imprinting machine and blank postal money orders carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The count of defrauding the USPS carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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