A New York man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for using the identities of others to pass bad checks in a scheme to buy thousands of dollars of postage stamps in Connecticut and surrounding states.
Ezekiel Bailey, 33, of Brooklyn, New York appeared Wednesday in federal court in Hartford where U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver ordered that his prison term be followed by a year of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.
In September, Bailey pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year prison term.
Officials said the U.S Postal Inspection Service began investigating upon receiving reports that someone was passing and attempting to pass bad checks to purchase thousands of dollars in postage stamps from post offices in multiple states in the Northeast. Investigators found that Bailey used the identities of three different people in the scheme, which included fake driver’s licenses and checks linked to empty bank accounts that were created in the victims’ names.
According to authorities, Bailey purchased or attempted to purchase a total of $134,297 in stamps in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts and elsewhere.
On Jan. 20, 2023, Bailey was arrested on state charges after he tried to buy 25 books of postage stamps for $300 at a post office in Stonington, officials said. He had two fake driver’s licenses with the names of identity theft victims when he was arrested.
Bailey was later charged federally in November 2024.