Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber has sentenced Edward Morgan (49), a/k/a Edward Croce, a/k/a Edward Carrera, to six years and six months in federal prison for theft of government funds. As part of his sentence, the court also entered a money judgment of $405,935.76, the proceeds of the theft.
Morgan had pleaded guilty on September 27, 2019.
According to court documents, beginning in November 2016 and continuing through the date of his arrest in May 2019, Morgan used fictitious checks at hundreds of United States Post Office locations in Florida and other states—Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia—to purchase stamps. Morgan then converted the stamps to cash by reselling them to unsuspecting third parties, usually businesses or stamp traders. To further the scheme, Morgan often posed as a business professional during his visits to the post offices, wearing business attire and referencing his “job.” During the course of the scheme, Morgan used the personal identifying information of a real person, P.T. (now deceased), as well as the fictitious names Edward Carrera and Edward Croce. He stole more than $400,000 in stamps and other services from the United States Post Office.
This case was investigated by United States Postal Inspection Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rachel K. Jones and Suzanne Nebesky.
Originally published at https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/individual-sentenced-postage-stamp-scheme
