In national scam to steal mail, banking identities, this Louisiana man is bound for prison

A Slidell man is headed to prison in a national scam to pilfer mail from blue collection boxes, steal the victims' identities and cash fraudulent checks in their names.

Federal prosecutors say Ronald S. Riley Jr., 28, gained $250,000 from his crimes. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter on Tuesday sent him away for 4½ years.

Box keys stolen

His crimes came in a national outbreak of mail thefts made possible by someone stealing, duplicating and selling the special "arrow keys" that U.S. Postal Service employees use to unlock collection boxes at post offices and other public sites. In May, the Postal Service said it was installing 12,000 "high security" collection boxes "making access to their contents more difficult for criminals." It also said it was replacing 49,000 antiquated arrow locks with electronic locks.

Riley admitted stealing mail from collection boxes around New Orleans beginning in 2018, in order to gather banking information from some of the correspondence, according to court records. He used the information to "convert the stolen items into illicit funds" and deposited fraudulent checks into other bank accounts belonging to his co-conspirators.

Some acquaintances also gave Riley information from customer checks they received at their businesses.

Caught in the act

Riley was arrested Dec. 23, 2020, while trying to cash stolen money orders at a Slidell bank.

The court records of Riley's case do not identify his co-conspirators.

Vitter, whom President Donald Trump nominated to the court, is set to hold a hearing Jan. 30 to determine the specifics of restitution that Riley must pay.