{"id":40311,"date":"2026-09-29T12:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=40311"},"modified":"2026-09-29T12:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:43:09","slug":"stamford-man-charged-for-stolen-social-security-checks-worth-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/09\/29\/stamford-man-charged-for-stolen-social-security-checks-worth-thousands\/","title":{"rendered":"Stamford Man Charged for Stolen Social Security Checks Worth Thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

9\/28\/26 – David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that BRADLEIGH RIVAL, 23, of Stamford, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with offenses stemming from his alleged role in a conspiracy involving the theft, altering, and negotiating of U.S. Treasury checks stolen from the U.S. Mail.<\/p>\n

As alleged in court documents, in 2024, the Connecticut Organized Financial Fraud Task Force began an investigation after learning that several social security checks issued to individuals in Connecticut and New York had been stolen from the mail.\u00a0 The investigation revealed that more than 100 stolen U.S. Treasury checks with a total value of several hundred thousand dollars had been deposited into the bank account of one individual.\u00a0 Rival had exchanged Apple Cash payments with the bank account holder, and was identified as a participant in a conspiracy to acquire checks stolen from the mail, \u201cwash\u201d or alter the named payee on the checks, deposit them into bank accounts of individuals they recruited, and withdraw the stolen funds at ATMs, through mobile apps, by making purchases at stores with cash back capabilities, or by using debit cards to purchase U.S. Postal Service money orders.\u00a0 Analysis of Rival\u2019s social media accounts has revealed included numerous photos of Rival in possession of large amounts of cash stolen during the scheme.<\/p>\n

On September 16, 2026, Rival was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with bank fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years, theft or possession of stolen mail, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years, and aggravated identity theft, an offense that carries a mandatory consecutive term of imprisonment of two years.\u00a0 He is currently released on a $200,000 bond.<\/p>\n

This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service\u00a0Connecticut Organized Financial Fraud Task Force (CUTOFF), the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs\u00a0Office of the Inspector General, and the Stamford Police Department.\u00a0 The CUTOFF Task Force includes personnel from the Stamford, Westport, West Haven, and Bridgeport Police Departments.\u00a0 The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel E. Cummings.<\/p>\n

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (\u201cFraud Division\u201d).\u00a0 The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people.\u00a0 The Department\u2019s work to combat fraud supports President Trump\u2019s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9\/28\/26 – David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that BRADLEIGH RIVAL, 23, of Stamford, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with offenses stemming from his alleged role in a conspiracy involving the theft, altering, and negotiating of U.S. Treasury checks stolen from the U.S. Mail. As alleged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","category-postal-crime","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40312,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40311\/revisions\/40312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}