Crime
The men worked with co-conspirators to steal mailed checks and redeposit them into bank accounts that they controlled.
February 15, 2026 | 10:22 AM
1 minute to read
Two Massachusetts men have been sentenced to time in federal prison for fraudulently depositing checks stolen from the mail, prosecutors said.
Imanol Rios-Franco, 26, of Canton, and Brandon Baez, 23, of North Attleborough, both pleaded guilty in November 2025 to bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to steal and possess stolen mail, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement.
Rios-Franco was sentenced Feb. 10 to 35 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $12,528 in restitution, according to prosecutors.
Baez was sentenced Feb. 12 to two years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $10,285 in restitution, prosecutors said.
From at least June 2023 through February 2024, Rios-Franco, Baez, and multiple unnamed co-conspirators stole mailed checks from USPS collection boxes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They then washed the hand-written ink from the checks “using commercially available chemicals.”
The stolen checks were reissued to the co-conspirators or other bank accounts that they controlled and fraudulently deposited, according to prosecutors. The defendants and their co-conspirators then withdrew the fraudulently obtained funds from ATMs or through money orders.
Investigators reviewed the co-conspirators’ cellphones and found that they had collaborated to plan the scheme together, prosecutors said.
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