RICHMOND, Va. – 9/16/26 – Two Richmond men were sentenced for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and possession of stolen mail.
According to court documents, from May 2023 through April 2024, Tremont Hancock, 25, and Olden Ellerbe III, 27, conspired with other individuals to steal U.S. mail, sometimes using stolen USPS “arrow” keys, which unlock all Postal Service collection boxes in a given geographic area. Ellerbe and Hancock obtained the personal and financial information of numerous victims through these mail thefts and utilized it to fraudulently withdraw funds from those victims’ accounts at local banking institutions.
Hancock and Ellerbe targeted victims’ financial accounts through a variety of means, including the creation of fictitious checks drafted on the victims’ bank accounts; using stolen debit and/or credit cards to withdraw funds from the victims’ bank accounts; and applying for loans in the names of victims, then withdrawing the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds with the victims’ stolen debit cards.
On Nov. 15, 2023, during a spree of five withdrawal transactions totaling $84,000 from victims’ accounts, law enforcement officers confronted Hancock and Ellerbe following the final transaction. Officers arrested Ellerbe after a brief pursuit and found him in possession of stolen mail, $59,940 in cash, 83 stolen checks with a total face value of $153,630.83, nine stolen credit or debit cards, six stolen U.S. Saving Bonds with a total value of $5,000, and a handgun. In Ellerbe’s rental car, officers found another stolen debit card, a counterfeit driver’s license, and more stolen mail.
Ellerbe pled guilty on Feb. 16, 2024, and was sentenced on Aug. 19, 2024, to three years in prison. Hancock pled guilty on Dec. 4, 2025, and was sentenced today to five years and six months years in prison.
Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Damon E. Wood, Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge David J. Novak.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert S. Day prosecuted the case.
