Las Vegas man sentenced to prison for role in mail fraud scheme
A Las Vegas man is going to prison for 41 months after pleading guilty in a fraud conspiracy that involved a former mail carrier.
Though originally charged with five criminal counts, Vincent Okoye agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
Authorities say Okoye, 40, obtained nearly two dozen unemployment benefit debit cards from the states of Nevada and Arizona using stolen identities.
The cards were delivered to addresses selected by the former mail carrier, Jasmine-Royshell Black, who used her knowledge of her postal route to find mail drops that were rarely or never used. Then, prosecutors allege, Black would collect the cards when they arrived at the addresses and deliver them to Okoye.
When detectives searched Okoye’s home, they found more than $98,000 in cash, $12,000 dollars in traveler’s checks, 100 pieces of mail not addressed to Okoye and 23 unemployment debit cards — 11 from the Arizona Department of Economic Security and 12 from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
Black has also pleaded guilty in the case. She is scheduled to be sentenced in November and is free pending sentencing.
Okoye was remanded to the custody of prison officials.
Contact Glen A. Meek at gmeek@reviewjournal.com or 602-380-8951. Follow @GlenMeekLV on Twitter.