LOS ANGELES – Federal authorities this morning arrested a United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier and a Santa Clarita Valley man for allegedly scheming to steal approximately $800,000 in unemployment insurance (UI) funds by using false claims of COVID-related job losses and stealing UI debit cards from the U.S. mail.
Stephen Glover, 32, of Palmdale, who worked at the Valencia post office, and Travis McKenzie, 26, of Valencia, who lived on Glover’s mail delivery route, are expected to make their initial court appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. A criminal complaint filed on May 13 and unsealed after today’s arrests charges Glover and McKenzie with one count of mail fraud.
According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, from August 2020 to February 2021, Glover and McKenzie fraudulently obtained debit cards issued by the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which administers the state’s unemployment insurance program. The debit cards were issued based on applications for pandemic-related unemployment benefits submitted using approximately 50 stolen identities and containing false statements claiming COVID-related job losses, the affidavit states. The EDD debit cards were issued in the names of victims, some of whom had never resided in, worked in, or even visited California. Glover and McKenzie allegedly split the cash withdrawn using the EDD debit cards, some of which had balances...
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