Postal Employee Who Embezzled $90K Gets 18 Months In Prison, Must Pay Restitution: Feds

A former US Postal Service employee who was convicted of stealing $90,000 will spend the next 18 months behind bars, authorities announced on Tuesday, June 11.

Jamesa Rankins, 27, of Brockton, was found guilty in November of one count of theft of government money and three counts of wire fraud, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said. She was ordered to spend 18 months in federal prison and repay the $104,698 she embezzled from the Postal Service.

Rankins worked as a Sales & Service Distribution Associate at the Montello Post office in Brockton for approximately four and a half years before being fired in 2021. During that time, she could reprint money orders for customers if they were lost, destroyed, or created erroneously.

The prosecutor said she created 126 fake replacement money orders beginning in 2020 worth $90,000.

In May 2020, authorities said she applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance from the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance despite working at the Post Office. She collected $15,000 before officials noticed the fraud.