Crime & Safety

Two Arrested for Scheme to Defraud US Postal Service

Two city residents were arrested and arraigned Friday for allegedly depositing money orders then returning them for a refund.

Two Danbury residents were arrested Friday for their alleged roles in a postal money order fraud that could garner them respective sentences of 115 years and 55 years in prison.

According to an indictment returned Wednesday, between August and October 2013, Anthony Sterlin Cantave, 34, and Venus Verges, 33, purchased U.S. Postal Service money orders in amounts ranging from $400 to $1000 at post offices in Fairfield County.

After the money orders were purchased, they used a mobile banking application to deposit the funds into bank accounts they controlled. Shortly after depositing the funds, they returned to the post offices from which the respective money orders had been purchased, failed to disclose that they had deposited the funds, returned the money orders and were refunded their money.

Cantave and Verges were charged with one count of conspiracy to convert public money — with a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison — and 11 and 5 counts, respectively, of conversion of public money, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years per count.

Both pleaded “not guilty” in Hartford Superior Court on Friday and are being held pending their next court date.


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