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Zumar Dubose, 32, of Atlantic City, NJ; Abdush Dubose, 34, of Boynton Beach, FL; and Kariem Dubose, 40, of Philadelphia, PA; were charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Between October 2018 and April 2020, the Dubose brothers submitted over 1,200 fraudulent insured-parcel claims with USPS and UPS and received almost $300,000 in dishonest means, according to Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams.
As part of the scheme, the men sent parcels to themselves using insured USPS postage and UPS tracking labels. They then filed fraudulent claims with USPS and UPS, claiming the parcels were lost or damaged in transit, and attached bogus proofs of value, authorities said.
They used numerous e-mails, addresses and postboxes, bank accounts and bank cards, fake individual names, and fictitious corporations.
The claim checks that the brothers received were deposited into Citizens Bank accounts opened in the names of the fake companies through ATMs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, Williams said.
The men also filed false lawsuits under false plaintiff names when USPS and UPS refused to issue or deliver some of the claim checks and when Citizens Bank suspended a bank account that was used to deposit the proceeds of the fraud, authorities said.
“The brothers Dubose devised an elaborate scheme to take advantage of the Post Office’s and UPS’s parcel insurance. Setting up fake email addresses, sending empty parcels, and filing bogus lawsuits, were among the tactics that demonstrate the lengths to which these brothers went to steal money from a private company and a government agency," said Damon Wood, Postal Inspector in Charge of the Philadelphia Division of the Postal Inspection Service.
"A company and an agency, I might add, who have both worked tirelessly over the last 18 months to support our community and nation through the pandemic. Thanks to the detailed investigation of Inspectors from the Postal Inspection Service and by agents of Post Office Inspector General, this theft was stopped and the brothers behind it have been charged.”
If convicted, Zumar faces a maximum possible sentence of 340 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a $5 million fine.
Abdush faces a maximum sentence of 310 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $3.75 million fine.
Kariem faces a maximum possible sentence of 130 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $2.25 million fine.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service.
It is being prosecuted by Deputy United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen and Assistant United States Attorney J. Jeanette Kang.
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