Postal worker and his son stole more than $5 million in money orders, feds say

A California postal employee and his son stole more than $5 million in Postal money order forms, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

The Postal employee, Dewayne Morris Sr., 62, was a supervisor for post offices in the Los Angeles area, including Venice, Playa del Rey and Marina del Rey, when he ordered 10,000 Postal money orders, the release said. An audit revealed that about 5,100 money orders were missing, potentially making for a $5.1 million loss, as each money order could be a maximum of $1,000.

While Morris Sr., a resident of Inglewood, told investigators he returned some of the 10,000 money order forms, the indictment says his son, Dewayne Morris Jr., distributed the missing money orders to co-conspirators.

The stolen money orders Morris Jr. gave to others were altered to look as if they had been paid for and issued by a post office, the release said. The son also is accused of providing individuals with counterfeit driver’s licenses they could use to open bank accounts across the country.



They then deposited the money orders and cashed out before banks detected fraudulent activity, the release said.

“We and our law enforcement partners are committed to seeking justice in this case and others like it,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in the statement.

Morris Sr., his son and four others are facing charges for conspiring to convert the money order forms to cash, according to the release. The father and son also are charged with three counts of bank fraud with a maximum sentence of 30 years imprisonment for each charge. The son also faces an additional bank fraud count and aggravated identity theft count for a separate incident.

Morris Sr.’s lawyer, Linh Teresa Nguyen, told McClatchy News she had no comment on the case, while Morris Jr.’s lawyer, Merle N. Schneidewind, did not return requests for comment by time of publication.

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