Brockton woman convicted of stealing nearly $90,000 from postal service

A 27-year-old Brockton woman who worked for the U.S. Postal Service was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison for embezzling nearly $90,000 and fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits, the Acting U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts announced , Joshua S. Levy.

Jamesa Rankins was ordered to pay nearly $105,000 in restitution by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns. In November, she was convicted by a federal jury of three counts of wire fraud and a court of theft of government money, Levy's office said in a statement.

Rankins worked as a sales and service distribution associate at the Montello Post Office in Brockton for approximately four and a half years before her termination in January 2021.

As a sales and service distribution associate, Rankins had the ability to generate money orders and replacement money orders. If the original money orders were lost, damaged or incorrect, customers could obtain replacement orders without paying a fee.

Beginning in approximately September 2020, Rankins issued approximately 126 false replacement orders to an associate for orders that were not lost, damaged or incorrect. In “many cases,” the false orders actually invalidated orders that had been properly issued, Levy's office said.

In total, Rankins issued replacement warrants worth nearly $90,000, according to Levy's office.

Before the fake replacement warrants were issued, Rankins applied for and subsequently received Pandemic Unemployment Assistance from the state, despite being employed by the USPS and therefore ineligible for unemployment assistance. era. Rankins received at least $15,000 in unemployment benefits to which she was not entitled, according to Levy's office.