The postal worker deposited 98 stolen checks to finance ‘luxurious lifestyle’, for a sum of $ 1.6 million, the federals say

A postal operator stole and forged around $ 1.6 million in mail checks, federal prosecutors said.

Last week, a jury condemned Hachikosela, 44, for a variety of fraud and mail theft positions, announced the United States prosecutor for the Columbia district on March 14.

“Muchimba used the revenues of stolen checks to finance a luxurious lifestyle that included international trips, states in luxury hotels and purchases in gentlemen’s clubs,” ” The announcement said.

The prosecutors had previously offered a guilt agreement that rejected in favor of trying to flee to Zambia. He was caught at the airport with $ 2,000, according to researchers.

McClatchy News contacted Muchimba’s lawyer on March 14 to comment on the verdict, but did not immediately receive an answer.

In January 2023, a customer on the Muimba mail route in Washington, DC, noticed that a treasure check from the United States that was supposed to receive had been stolen and deposited on behalf of their mail, the investigators wrote in a criminal complaint.

The researchers said they subsequently discovered a scheme that dates back to 2021 in which a lot, partially helped by a co -worker in the post office, was stealing check checks on their mail route, forging them and depositing them in seven different bank accounts he controlled.

Ninety of the 98 stolen checks were the United States Treasury checks, many of them are worth tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.

Deposited a Treasury check from the United States worth $ 415,173.53, as shown in the records.

Muchimba was captured in surveillance images that went to ATMs to withdraw fraudulent income while using their USPS uniform, according to the complaint.

He spent more than $ 14,000 on Bvlgari Resort Bali, and in at least one case, he paid his conspirator $ 1,000 for help to steal a check, according to an accusation.

In September 2021, months after the scheme began, the researchers said Muchimba initiated the process of becoming an American citizen by submitting a application for naturalization. He answered not to the questions about the form that he asked the applicants if they had ever been involved in a crime for which they had not been arrested or if they had ever disappointed or deceived government officials.

He signed the application under a penalty of perjury and became a citizen during a ceremony in May 2022, prosecutors said.

By the time he won his citizenship, Muyimba had made more than $ 450,000 richer in the mail theft scheme, according to the researchers.

Muchimba was declared guilty of conspiracy to commit theft of mail and bank fraud, mail theft; bank fraud; participate in a monetary transaction in the property derived from the specified illegal activity; And illegal acquisition of citizenship or naturalization, said the office of the United States prosecutor.

It is scheduled to be sentenced on August 8.

© 2025 The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington). Visit www.thenewstribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.