Jaiswan Williams, 32, of Rochester Hills, identified by federal prosecutors as the leader of a mail theft and check fraud scheme involving more than $63 million in stolen checks, has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced Wednesday (June 3) that Williams received a sentence of just over 10 years in federal prison for his role in the operation, which involved stolen checks taken from the mail and sold through online marketplaces.
Recommended Videos
Court records indicated that Williams was the last of four defendants sentenced in the case.
Co-defendant Daquan Foreman, 32, of Eastpointe, was sentenced to 48 months in prison.
Vanessa Hargrove, 40, of Detroit, received 12 months and one day in prison, while Crystal Jenkins, 32, of Detroit, was sentenced to one day in custody followed by three years of supervised release.
All four defendants were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Judith E. Levy.
According to court records, Hargrove and Jenkins, both employees of the U.S. Postal Service at the time, diverted and stole checks and other negotiable instruments from the mail, including large numbers of U.S. Treasury tax refund checks.
Prosecutors said they supplied the stolen checks to Williams and Foreman in exchange for payment.
Williams and Foreman then advertised the checks for sale through channels on Telegram, a messaging application.
Prosecutors said one channel, called “Whole Foods Slipsss,” marketed higher-value checks, while another, “Uber Eats Slips,” marketed lower-value checks. In fraud schemes, stolen checks are often referred to as “slips.”
Investigators found that the two Telegram channels advertised more than 10,000 stolen checks with a combined face value exceeding $63 million.
Buyers allegedly used various methods to fraudulently cash the checks after purchasing them.
In addition to the mail theft conspiracy, Williams was sentenced for money laundering activities dating back to October 2022.
He also admitted to submitting approximately $1.5 million in fraudulent pandemic unemployment insurance claims between August and December 2020, using the personally identifiable information of dozens of individuals.
Federal officials said the investigation involved multiple agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.