A former U.S. mail carrier from Charlotte, North Carolina, was sentenced to prison for her role in a bank fraud conspiracy involving stolen mail. Kiara Padgett, 31, received a six-month active prison sentence followed by six months of home detention. The sentencing was announced by Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Padgett’s husband, Dominique Dunlap, had previously been sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,650,921.70 in restitution. Another co-conspirator, Terrell Alexander Hager, Jr., was sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement.
According to court documents and information presented at the sentencing hearing, Padgett participated in a scheme from August 2021 to November 2022 where she used her position as a mail carrier to steal checks from businesses and individuals along her route. Dunlap acted as an intermediary by selling the stolen checks to Hager and others. The checks were then deposited into accounts controlled by co-conspirators and quickly withdrawn before financial institutions or victims could detect the fraud. The total face value of the stolen checks exceeded $8.5 million.
U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson stated: “As I have said before, I am sick and tired of checks being stolen from the mail – which we too often see from employees of the Postal Service. We are working tirelessly to catch these thieves and bring them to justice.”
Padgett pleaded guilty on September 15, 2023, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The investigation involved multiple agencies including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG), and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD). Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Frick prosecuted the case.
