Man Charge In Post Office Scheme

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment today against Jimmy Lee Williams, 47, charging him with 29 felony charges in connection with a fraudulent check fraud scheme that allegedly netted more than $650,000 in postage stamps and other merchandise, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  Williams is also known by several aliases including Jimmy Williamson.

Thomas L. Noyes, Inspector in Charge of the Charlotte Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division;  and B.W. Collier, Acting Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation join Acting U.S. Attorney Rose in making todays’ announcement.

According to allegations contained in the indictment, in two separate time periods between November 2010 to present, Williams used two different networks of conspirators to defraud U.S. Post Offices and other businesses in the Southeast region.  According to the indictment, Williams provided counterfeit checks and fake identification to his 16 accomplices, who used them to buy postage stamps, gift cards and other merchandise from U.S. Post Offices, retail stores and warehouses throughout North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

According to the indictment, Williams and/or his accomplices purchased postage stamps and other goods with a total face value of more than $650,000 using counterfeit or fraudulent checks.  In the first scheme, Williams used counterfeit checks manufactured by Ronald Carr, who was charged last year in a related case with bank fraud and defrauding the United States.  In the second scheme, Williams used checks drawn on his own closed accounts and the bank accounts of accomplices he met in prison and through youth football leagues in the Concord, North Carolina area.  One such accomplice, Javorick Moore, was convicted in a related case in 2014 in the Eastern District of Virginia of defrauding the post office and other offenses.  In both schemes, Williams’ accomplices gave the stamps they obtained to Williams, who then sold them to an Internet company in California as well as a North Carolina pawn shop, typically for 50%-70% of the face value.  Williams carried out the first scheme while released on bond for a violation of a condition of supervised release arising from a previous federal conviction.

Williams has been charged with two counts of conspiracy which each carry a maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine; five counts of making & counterfeit securities which carry a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count; five counts of theft of government property which carry a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count; five counts of receiving stolen government property which carry a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count; five counts of scheme to obtain bank property which carry a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine per count; three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property which carry a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count; and one count of concealment money laundering which carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Williams is currently in federal custody.  He will be ordered to appear in court on the charges in the coming days.

The charges contained in the indictment are allegations.  The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

USPIS, the FBI, and NC SBI investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Savage, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, is prosecuting the case.