A 33-year-old Marietta man was sentenced to five years in federal prison this week for helping cash a batch of stolen U.S. Treasury checks in Montgomery, Alabama, capping off a case that included a high-speed chase where he allegedly hit another car and slammed into a power pole while trying to ditch evidence out his car window.
Devin Zia Adkins was sentenced on Thursday to 60 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. As reported by 95.5 WSB, Adkins was accused of helping cash stolen Treasury checks using a fake ID in Alabama, with prosecutors saying he and a co-conspirator cashed stolen checks totaling more than $14,000.
That co-conspirator, 40-year-old Sylena Christina Salikram of Brooklyn, New York, previously pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison, per the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors said the pair carried out the scheme on May 8 and 9, 2025, successfully cashing four stolen U.S. Treasury checks totaling $14,229.97 across four post offices in Montgomery. They reportedly failed in 10 additional attempts totaling more than $8,600 at other locations during the same two-day span.
A Chase That Ended in a Crash
Police detected the check-cashing scheme by the following day and located the suspects' vehicle, according to 95.5 WSB. When officers attempted to pull the pair over, Adkins sped away, according to prosecutors, reaching speeds exceeding 125 mph before crashing into a light pole, per police. As reported by WSB-TV, Adkins accelerated onto the interstate, struck another vehicle, and threw paper documents out the car window before the crash. Police then took Adkins and Salikram into custody.
The investigation was conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service, with assistance from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's Metro Area Crime Suppression unit, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, and the Montgomery Police Department, according to Justice Department records. It remains unclear how the pair originally obtained the stolen checks, and whether internal postal theft played any role in supplying them.
No Parole in the Federal System
Because parole has been abolished in the federal prison system, Department of Justice filings note that Adkins must serve his full 60-month term, minus any limited good-behavior credits, before entering supervised release. Under 18 U.S. Code § 1349, conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison and fines up to $250,000 or twice the gross financial gain, according to Medvin Law — meaning Adkins' five-year term falls well short of the maximum allowed by statute.
Post Offices as a Growing Target
The scheme exploited a specific vulnerability in how the U.S. Postal Service does business. A 2026 report from the USPS Office of Inspector General explains that post office retail windows offer government check-cashing services when sufficient cash is on hand, requiring customers to present two forms of identification — a process fraud networks have learned to exploit with stolen or fraudulent IDs.
The case fits into a broader national pattern. A 2026 analysis published by Forbes, citing FBI and Postal Inspection Service statistics, found a 139% increase in mail theft reports from receptacles between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, largely driven by organized groups targeting paper checks. Separately, industry reporting by VALID Systems indicates that in fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Payment Integrity prevented or recovered more than $4 billion in improper payments and check fraud, up sharply from $650 million in prior years.
Adkins' sentencing adds to a string of recent federal cases involving stolen or counterfeit Treasury checks. Hoodline has reported on five Houston-area residents charged in a $1 million fake check operation, as well as sentencings tied to schemes in Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and Philadelphia in recent days — underscoring how organized rings are increasingly treating stolen government checks as a lucrative, low-risk target.
