August 14, 2026
Lily Smith/USA Today via Reuters Connect
Four men, including Clifton Heights resident Alexander Telewoda, pleaded guilty earlier this year to mail theft, theft of government funds and conspiracy to steal those funds.
A Delco man who conspired to steal and sell U.S. Treasury checks from a Philly mail processing center was sentenced this week and will serve 6 1/2 years in prison.
Alexander Telewoda, 26, worked with three other men to pilfer checks worth a combined $121 million. The scheme involved a pair of cousins — Saahir Irby, 28, and Tauheed Tucker, 24 — employed as mail clerks at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. During their shifts, they took Treasury checks out of their sorted bins and smuggled them out of the building through backpacks, sweatshirts and jacket pockets.
The cousins then sold the stolen items to Telewoda and another associate, Cory Scott. Telewoda and Scott, 26, advertised the checks for resale on the Telegram app and mailed them to buyers, often for 10% of the check's face value.
This operation was active from June 2023 and September 2024, when Irby and Tucker lost access to the distribution center. In that time, the cousins sold thousands of checks worth $84 million to Telewoda and Scott. Their buyers successfully claimed about $11 million at financial institutions.
Telewoda found a new source of stolen checks after Irby and Tucker were fired from their jobs and continued to profit. When law enforcement arrested Telewoda in June 2025, they found checks worth more than $3 million in his Clifton Heights home.
All four men pleaded guilty in May in federal court to conspiracy to steal government funds, theft of government funds and mail theft. Telewoda, the first to be sentenced, will serve three years of supervised release in addition to his jail time. He owes $10,841,731.83 in restitution and $162,144.50 in forfeiture. His co-conspirators are due for sentencing in October.
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