Man sentenced to 51 months in prison for bank fraud conspiracy related to checks stolen from U.S. Mail
NEW JERSEY – An Essex County man was sentenced Tuesday to 51 months in prison for his role in a bank fraud conspiracy related to the theft of checks from the U.S. mail, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.
Baba Diakite, 23, of East Orange previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to one count of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. His conspirator, Nasir Johnson, was previously sentenced last year by Judge Salas to 49 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit mail theft and possess stolen mail, and theft of a U.S. Postal Service key, Sellinger said.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, from at least January 2020 to March 2022, Diakite, Johnson, and others conspired to steal checks from the mail in Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Passaic, Somerset, and Union counties
Diakite and his conspirators used misappropriated keys belonging to the U.S. Postal Service to access mail collection receptacles and steal envelopes that contained checks. After stealing the checks, Diakite and his conspirators sold them to third parties or deposited them, sometimes in altered form for higher amounts, into bank accounts.
Diakite and others then defrauded the banks by withdrawing money from the bank accounts. Diakite agreed that he caused a loss of between $550,000 and $1.5 million.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas sentenced Diakite to three years of supervised release, Sellinger said.
