Olivia L. Bryant, a former employee of the U.S. Postal Service in Chicago, admitted yesteday, September 18, to stealing government stimulus checks from the mail during 2020 and 2021, according to the Department of Justice.
Bryant detailed her actions in a plea agreement, acknowledging that she pilfered hundreds of pieces of mail from her route in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. Amongst the stolen mail were government stimulus checks issued by the U.S. Treasury to support Americans struggling during the pandemic. The plea agreement further revealed that Bryant was found to have removed five stimulus checks from her postal satchel on St. Patrick's Day in 2021, transferring them to her purse, as reported by the Department of Justice.
Upon pleading guilty to a charge of theft from the U.S. mail, 35-year-old Bryant now faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey has set her sentencing for December 7, 2023.
The announcement of Bryant's guilty plea was made by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Scott Pierce, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Great Lakes Area Field Office of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, and J. Russell George, Inspector General of the Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The government is represented by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Malgorzata Tracz Kozaka.
