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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A former United States Postal Service employee from Inglewood faces sentencing today for unlawfully buying and cashing tens of thousands of dollars' worth of postal money orders with unemployment benefits fraudulently obtained with false claims of COVID-related job losses.
Armand Caleb Legardy, 33, used debit cards that the California Employment Development Department had issued to other people for unemployment insurance benefits -- cards that were obtained by other unidentified individuals using stolen identities and false information, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Legardy, who worked in the La Tijera Post Office on Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles, pleaded guilty last year to one federal count of use of unauthorized access devices. He admitted to illegally using nine EDD cards and causing a loss of nearly $161,000.
Co-defendant Christian Jeremyah James, 32, also a former USPS employee, pleaded guilty to the same charge, and admitted to knowingly using at least eight EDD debit cards in other people's names and causing a loss of more than $142,000.
James, who worked in the Culver City Main Post Office, was sentenced last year to probation and ordered to pay restitution of $142,652.