Portage County men sentenced for their part in scheme involving checks stolen from mail

Two Portage County men were sentenced in federal court for their part in a scheme to profit off of about $1.5 million in checks stolen from the U.S. mail.

Elijah S. Payne, 23, was sentenced Aug. 12 to 37 months in prison in U.S. Sixth District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Maurice A. Mowler, 24, was ordered by the U.S. Marshal's Service to be held for nine hours each day for five days, followed by a sentence of 90 days of home incarceration with location monitoring.

Both men might be ordered to pay restitution, but that decision had not been made as of Friday, according to court records.

At the time charges were filed in June 2022, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Ohio reported Payne was a Streetsboro resident and Mowler was living in Kent, but it is unclear whether their residence changed since then.

Mowler and Payne were among 11 Northeast Ohioans charged in the case, including eight Cuyahoga County residents and a Lake County postal carrier.

The defendants were accused of participating in a conspiracy to steal checks from the U.S. mail. U.S. Postal Service collection boxes were accessed using stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained keys. Stolen checks were fraudulently altered and duplicated and then deposited with various banks.

Payne's name is prominent in a grand jury indictment as among those taking part in these activities.

The Lake County man was accused of stealing mail in his custody and selling it, along with mail collection box keys, to other members of the conspiracy.

Mowler was specifically accused of communicating with the Lake County man concerning the purchase of a mail collection box key and 10 checks for $3,500.

Co-conspirators were also accused of using Instagram to recruit other to use their bank accounts to cash the stolen, altered and forged checks.

Payne and Mowler both previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. In a plea deal, additional charges of possession of stolen mail and bank fraud were dismissed against Payne.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage County men sentenced for their part in scheme involving checks stolen from mail