Five people charged in connection with mail, bank fraud in Maryland

Paola Belloso
·2 min read
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PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) – A federal grand jury charged five men from Maryland with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, bank fraud, and charges in connection with a fraud scheme that involves more than 600 stolen checks.

The checks had a face value of more than $5 million dollars.

Federal charges were brought against 23-year-old Tianna Cosby, a/k/a “Mendoza,” of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, 26-year-old Marche Sisco of Suitland, Maryland, 21-year-old Tommi Cosby of District Heights, Maryland, 24-year-old Biniah Carter of Upper Marlboro, Maryland and
22-year-old Zion Oluwademilade Adeduwon, of Bowie, Maryland.

Tiana Cosby and Biniah Carter were arrested on January 19 and are expected to have a court appearance on Monday.

Law enforcement has not found Marche Sisco, Tommi Cosby, and Zion Oluwademilade Adeduwon.

According to the indictment, Tianna Cosby and Marche Sisco stole and caused the theft of personal and business checks that had been mailed through USPS by the victims.

The indictment also said that Sisco used her job as a USPS mail handler assistant at the Washington Network Distribution Center (NDC) to steal checks from the NDC, then talked to Cosby about the sale and distribution of hundreds of stolen checks.

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In addition to stealing checks from the NDC, the indictment also said that checks were obtained by stealing them from USPS collection boxes.

According to the indictment, Tianna Cosby, Tommi Cosby, Carter, and Adeduwon recruited “account mules”, or people whose bank accounts are used to deposit illegally acquired checks and proceeds of the scheme.

The conspirators then collected and shared the information from the account mules, which included banking and identity information.  They also allegedly used and transferred the means of identification of at least five victims.

As said in the indictment, the conspirators altered the stolen checks to match payment made to the account mules, deposited the fraudulent checks into the bank accounts belonging to the account mules, and then did financial transactions, including ATM withdrawals and account transfers, to obtain the money.

If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and bank fraud and for each count of bank fraud.

They also face a mandatory two years, consecutive to any other sentence imposed, for each count of aggravated identity theft. 

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