St. Louis Postal Worker Accused of Stealing Checks from Mail, Pandemic Fraud

ST. LOUIS - A U.S. Postal Service mail handler was indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court and accused of pandemic fraud and stealing checks from the mail.

Anthony Virdure II, 29, was indicted on three counts of mail theft and one count of wire fraud. The indictment accuses Virdure of stealing checks with a face value of more than $1.5 million from the mail. Virdure worked at the Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center at 1720 Market Street in St. Louis and had access to all first-class mail routed through the center, the indictment says.

The indictment also accuses Virdure of fraudulently applying for and receiving a $20,832 Pandemic Protection Program (PPP) loan in 2021 for a tobacco store called Virdure Dynamics. The loan application contained false information about the business' income and Virdure supplied a false IRS Schedule C in support of the application, the indictment says. The purported address of the store was actually his grandmother's house, it says.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The wire fraud charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine. The mail theft charges carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and the same fine.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwen Carroll is prosecuting the case.