HAMPTON, Va. – A man, his girlfriend and his girlfriend's two brothers are facing charges accused of being involved in a mail fraud scheme.
Federal prosecutors claim they would file false insurance claims with the United States Postal Service for items they claimed were lost or damaged in the mail.
Records state from February 2019 until November 2019, the group filed 451 claims with the US Postal Service. The average claim amount was about $297.
Oswald Hendricks of Hampton is in a relationship with Jessica Holiday. Jayvan Holiday and Javon Wiggins are Jessica’s brothers, according to the indictment.
According to a federal indictment, the USPS offered up to $5,000 of insurance coverage as protection against the loss or damage to a customer’s package.
Records say when an insured item was lost or damaged, the customer could request compensation by filling out a claim online by mail or at the postal rental unit.
Prosecutors say the group made false claims saying that packages that contained an iPhone 8 went missing or were lost in the mail.
According to the documents, in many cases, no actual items were placed into the mail stream.
They said Hendricks filed about 310 claims and accuse Jessica Holiday of filing about 125. They say the other two men filed eight claims.
Records state that some of the claims were filed on the same day that the packages were supposedly mailed, at a time before the defendants could reasonably have known where the packages were lost or damaged by the Postal Service.
Prosecutors claim the loss to the United States from this scheme was not less than $134,000.
According to the records, the defendants used kiosks not manned by an employee throughout this scheme.
We reached out to the attorneys for all the defendants.
Javon Holiday’s lawyer said he had no comment about the charges.
