Postal worker stole $1.6M from mail, tried to flee US, feds say. He’s sentenced
.jpg "A former U.S. Postal Service employee has been sentenced to prison after federal prosecutors said he stole checks from the mail and then tried to flee the country.")
A former postal worker convicted of stealing checks worth more than $1.6 million from the mail in Washington, D.C., spent $100,000 of the money at gentlemen’s clubs, federal prosecutors said.
Hachikosela Muchimba, 45, of D.C., also splurged on trips abroad and booked stays at luxury hotels before he was arrested while trying to flee the U.S. in September 2023, according to prosecutors.
Authorities found Muchimba with $2,000 in cash inside his luggage when they detained him at Dulles International Airport in Virginia before he boarded a flight to Zambia, in southern Africa, prosecutors said.
Now, Muchimba has been sentenced to five years and six months in prison on multiple charges including bank fraud and mail fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a Sept. 3 news release.
In court filings ahead of sentencing, prosecutors wrote: “Muchimba was consistent, devious, and confident in executing his fraud scheme, which enabled him to get away with his theft again and again for years.”
His defense attorneys, Pleasant Sanford Brodnax III and Steven Roy Kiersh, did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment Sept. 4.
Muchimba, who is from Zambia, also had his U.S. citizenship revoked after prosecutors said he became a naturalized citizen in May 2022.
He is accused of lying on his U.S. citizenship application by saying he had not committed any crimes.
Muchimba became a U.S. citizen during his nearly three-year scheme, between December 2020 and March 2023, when he was a letter carrier in Friendship Heights, a neighborhood in northwest D.C., the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
In that span of time, he stole U.S. Treasury checks and checks belonging to private parties from more than 30 mail routes, according to prosecutors.
“Muchimba deposited the checks, sometimes while wearing his U.S. Postal uniform, into bank accounts under his control,” prosecutors said.
Surveillance footage captured him withdrawing the money linked to the stolen checks from ATM machines, according to prosecutors, McClatchy News reported in September 2023.
Three surveillance photos included in court documents previously reviewed by McClatchy News show Muchimba wearing USPS clothing while withdrawing cash.
Before his arrest at Dulles International Airport, prosecutors met with Muchimba and his legal counsel and gave him the opportunity to accept a pre-indictment plea deal, according to a memo in support of his pretrial detention.
Muchimba rejected this offer and instead made plans to flee to Zambia, the memo says.
In the government’s sentencing memo, prosecutors wrote that “In order to facilitate his scheme, Muchimba was able to persuade at least one other postal carrier (and probably more) to assist him in stealing U.S. mail.”
A federal jury found Muchimba guilty in March of conspiracy to commit theft of mail and bank fraud, theft of mail, bank fraud, engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity, and unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization, according to prosecutors.
In Muchimba’s defense, his legal counsel wrote in a sentencing memo on his behalf that his “criminal conduct was an isolated episode in an otherwise law-abiding life, not part of an entrenched pattern of criminality.”
His attorneys explained Muchimba has “extraordinary family circumstances” and several relatives who depend on him emotionally and financially, including his parents who live in Zambia.
“Mr. Muchimba’s life has been defined by his steadfast commitment to caring for his loved ones, often at personal sacrifice,” his attorneys wrote in the sentencing memo. “This is not a case where incarceration would merely inconvenience family members; rather, it would dismantle a vital support network and leave vulnerable relatives — both in the United States and abroad — without the guidance, emotional stability, and financial assistance they have long relied upon.”
Muchimba is required to pay $651,068.35 in restitution to victims and “forfeit his ill-gotten gains of $1,273,403.36,” prosecutors said.
He will also be deported, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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