David X. Sullivan, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, has announced that Ernesto Rodriguez, Jr., a former postal carrier from East Hartford now residing in Tampa, Florida, has pleaded guilty to stealing a U.S. Treasury check. Rodriguez waived his right to be indicted and entered his plea in Hartford federal court.
Court documents reveal that in 2021, while working as a mail carrier in Glastonbury for the U.S. Postal Service, Rodriguez was approached by an acquaintance to intercept federal tax refund checks sent to addresses on his route. He would then deliver these checks to an unknown individual in New York and receive approximately $100 per check. Rodriguez provided his acquaintance with information about his route so that refund checks could be sent to those addresses and was given around 10 names and addresses for checks he was supposed to intercept.
In October 2021, Rodriguez stole a U.S. Treasury tax refund check worth $4,943.17 before it reached its intended recipient on his route. On October 23, 2021, he deposited this check into his wife’s bank account and transferred $4,500 from her account to his own two days later for personal use.
Rodriguez resigned from the U.S. Postal Service on October 23, 2021. He informed law enforcement that he only stole one check as part of this scheme.
Rodriguez has pleaded guilty to theft of public money, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. His sentencing is scheduled for September 24, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford.
Currently released on a $15,000 bond pending sentencing, Rodriguez’s case is being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service along with the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel is prosecuting the case.
