Scott Kelley, Cash Theft & Money Laundering, Massachusetts 2023

BOSTON, MA - In a shocking turn of events, Scott Kelley, 51, of Pembroke, Mass. was arrested and charged today for allegedly stealing over $330,000 in cash from packages mailed by elderly victims and then laundering the cash and failing to report it to the Internal Revenue Service.

Kelley, a former U.S. Postal Inspector, was charged in a 45-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Boston. Specifically, Kelley was indicted on five counts of wire fraud; five counts of mail fraud; five counts of mail theft by a postal officer; one count of theft of government money; 23 counts of money laundering; one count of structuring to evade reporting requirements; and five counts of filing false tax returns.

Kelley was a Postal Inspector at the Boston Division headquarters of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service. From 2015 until June 2022, he was the Team Leader of the Mail Fraud Unit, which, among other things, investigated lottery and other scams that targeted senior citizens and other vulnerable populations. In June 2022, Kelley was transferred to serve as the Team Leader of the Mail Theft Unit, a position he held until August 2023.

According to the indictment, Kelley used deceptive emails to cause unwitting postal employees to intercept packages that a USPIS algorithm had flagged as likely having been mailed by Jamaica-based scam victims and send them to him. In total, Kelley allegedly requested that approximately 1,950 packages be intercepted and mailed to him. It is alleged that Kelley opened intercepted parcels that looked or felt like they might contain cash, and that he stole any cash inside.

The indictment identifies seven victims who were scammed into mailing cash in parcels that Kelley allegedly intercepted, and that he opened the parcels and stole the cash. The average age of the victims was 75, with the oldest victim being 82. The victims mailed between $1,400 and $19,100 cash. It is alleged that Kelley met with one victim in person and told them that he did not know what had happened with their package and that their loss was their own fault because they had mailed cash. None of the victims recovered their packages or their cash.

Kelley is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston this afternoon. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service ran a nationwide crime-prevention program, Jamaican Operations Linked to Telemarketing (JOLT), to disrupt mail fraud scams originating in Jamaica that targeted U.S. residents with false promises of sweepstakes or lottery winnings.

Kelley's arrest comes after a lengthy investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The indictment alleges that Kelley used a postal employee's keypad code to unlock and enter an evidence vault at USPIS. Once inside, Kelley allegedly used another Postal Inspector's key to open an evidence locker and steal $7,000 in cash. It is alleged that Kelley wrote a memo blaming the other Postal Inspector for the missing $7,000, which resulted in a USPS Office of Inspector General investigation.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/former-us-postal-inspector-charged-stealing-over-330000-cash-elderly-victims