Federal prosecutors have indicted four Atlanta-area women, two of whom are former U.S. Postal Service mail carriers, with charges related to an alleged $4.9 mail theft scheme.
The Justice Department alleged Thursday that between March 2020 and September 2025, Shanda Goode, 57, at the time a worker at a post office in Atlanta, and Carnisha Hamilton, 42, then a worker at a post office in Marietta, Georgia, stole mail containing checks, credit cards and other valuable items.
Ms. Goode and Ms. Hamilton are accused of selling the stolen goods to Francina Sutton, 46, who was previously convicted on forgery, identity theft and other theft charges. Sutton, prosecutors said, used the credit cards and other items and cashed checks stolen from the mail.
Sutton is alleged to have worked with Tonya Bailey, who was at the time an assistant financial center manager at a bank in Alpharetta, Georgia, nearly 23 miles northeast of Atlanta, to open bank accounts in the names of unsuspecting victims as part of cashing those checks, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors accused Sutton of going into Ms. Bailey’s bank while masked in February 2023 and opening an account for an entity with a name similar to that of a payee for a stolen $4.9 million U.S. Treasury check, which was deposited into the account.
Sutton is also accused of going back to the bank two weeks later, withdrawing two $150,000 cashier’s checks from the first account, opening new bank accounts with stolen ID information with the alleged aid of Ms. Bailey and then putting $300,000 into the new accounts, the Justice Department said.
The U.S. Secret Service seized $4.7 million from the accounts, which the federal government is seeking to forfeit.
The four suspects were arraigned Thursday on multiple charges. Ms. Goode and Ms. Hamilton face charges of theft of mail by a postal employee and conspiracy and Ms. Bailey faces charges of aggravated identity theft, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering, and money laundering conspiracy.
Sutton is charged with access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy, possession of stolen mail, theft of mail by a postal employee and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
