Providence man sentenced for stealing mail, fraudulent checks

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — United States Attorney Zachary Cunha said a Providence man was sentenced for possession of nearly $200,000 in stolen and fraudulent checks while serving a term of federal supervised release.

25-year-old Edmilson Rodrigues pled guilty to a charge of possession of stolen mail.

Rodrigues was found to be in possession of 91 legitimate checks and eight fraudulent checks totaling approximately $193,596.27.

Cunha said the legitimate checks were mailed out by various businesses but were never received by the intended recipients.

Rodrigues was arrested on an unrelated drug charge in February, when police found the checks, and was serving a term of federal supervised release that followed a sentence of 24 months of incarceration.

He was sentenced to 18 months of incarceration to be followed by three years of federal supervised release, the first three of which were ordered to be served at a halfway house.