Robenson Fenelon received 54 months in prison, while Squille Traxler received 15 months. Fenelon and Traxler pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of stolen mail. Fenelon also pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft.
According to court documents, the two conspired with mail carriers to steal the identities of at least 50 victims in Fishers and Indianapolis. They used that information to defraud financial institutions of $244,222.93.
Traxler, a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service at the time, helped Fenelon identify potential targets. They obtained the targets’ identifying information, including sensitive information such as dates of birth, family names, social security numbers, bank account numbers and addresses, via Traxler’s mail access.
Fenelon then used the information to access and take over the victims’ bank accounts or to open new accounts in the victims’ names. They stole checks and credit cards from the victims’ mail and used them to withdraw cash and make personal purchases.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Zachary A. Myers said that “fraud schemes using stolen mail cause significant hardship to innocent victims and undermine trust in a vital government service … fraudsters must be held accountable, especially those criminals who abuse the public’s trust in service of their greed.”
The Postal Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Detroit Division, Rodney M. Hopkins, commended the efforts of all agencies involved in bringing these individuals to justice and emphasized the importance of protecting the U.S. Mail and customers. Scott Pierce, inspector in charge with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Southern Area Field Office, said that the majority of postal employees are hard-working civic employees dedicated to securely pushing mail to its proper destination.
The sentences were issued by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker, who also ordered Fenelon and Traxler to be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office following their release from federal prison and pay $244,222.93 in restitution.
Contact multi-media staff writer Noral Parham III at 317-762-7846 or via email at noralp@indyrecorder.com. Follow him on Twitter @NoralParham. For more news, click here.
54 months is not enough. As someone who had his identity stolen. The damage done will take more than 54 month to repair. This guy should be there for a min of 10 years hard time. He not only stole peoples info. He severely abused the trust we give our mail carriers. I hope the Judge makes him pay all that Money back.