We all dream about living a life of luxury – fancy hotels, exotic travel, and VIP treatment.
But most of us don’t resort to stealing millions from the mail system to make it happen.
One Washington, DC postal worker decided to take a very illegal shortcut to the high life, and now he’s facing some serious consequences.
Hachikosela Muchimba, a 44-year-old former US Postal Service employee, was just found guilty of stealing a whopping $1.6 million in checks from the mail.
The federal jury didn’t buy whatever excuse he might have had for suddenly depositing Treasury checks that weren’t his.
From Sorting Mail to Swiping Checks
According to court documents, Muchimba spent over two years (from December 2020 to March 2023) executing his scheme while working for USPS.
Instead of making sure people got their mail, he was systematically stealing US Treasury checks and private party checks.
But the theft was just the beginning.
Prosecutors revealed that Muchimba then either altered the checks or falsely endorsed them before depositing them into his own bank accounts. Talk about having your priorities backward.
The total amount stolen? Just over $1.6 million in US Treasury checks alone. That’s a lot of mail that never reached its intended recipients.
Living Large on Other People’s Money
What does someone do with stolen millions? In Muchimba’s case, he decided to go all out.
Federal prosecutors reported that he used the proceeds to fund “a lavish lifestyle that included international travel, stays at luxury hotels, and purchases at gentlemen’s clubs.”
Basically, he was living like a movie star on a postal worker’s credentials.
Unfortunately for Muchimba, bank surveillance cameras aren’t known for their discretion.
Images captured him making deposits and withdrawals of the stolen funds, creating a paper trail that eventually led back to him.
The Justice System Delivers
Muchimba’s mail fraud scheme finally got its own return address when he was arrested in September 2023.
According to local news station WUSA9, at the time of his arrest, he was actually attempting to flee to Zambia.
The jury found him guilty on multiple charges including conspiracy to commit theft of mail and bank fraud, theft of mail, bank fraud, and engaging in monetary transactions with illegally obtained funds.
But that’s not all.
Turns out Muchimba also lied on his US citizenship application, claiming he hadn’t committed any crimes for which he hadn’t been arrested. The jury found him guilty of unlawful procurement of naturalization as well.
The Price of Postal Theft
The consequences are about to get very real for the former postal worker. Sentencing is scheduled for August 8, and he’s looking at some serious time.
The bank fraud charge alone carries a maximum penalty of 30 years, while the mail theft charge could add another five years.
His citizenship fraud adds the possibility of ten more years plus “administrative denaturalization” – basically, losing the citizenship he fraudulently obtained.
This story serves as a reminder that while mail might move slowly sometimes, justice eventually gets delivered.