NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that ANTOINE MERCHANT, age 33, of New York, New York, was sentenced on March 3, 2022 by U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana to three (3) years of probation for conspiracy to pass altered U.S. Postal money orders, passing altered U.S. Postal money orders and possessing stolen U.S. government property.
According to court records, MERCHANT and a co-defendant, Anthony Smalls, travelled from New York to Louisiana in October of 2019 to cash stolen U.S. Postal money orders that had been altered to show amounts worth hundreds of dollars. MERCHANT and Smalls cashed two such postal money orders in Kenner and Metairie, LA. When arrested, the defendants also possessed 58 U.S. Postal money orders that they had stolen from an Ascension Parish U.S. Post Office the day before.
In addition to probation, MERCHANT was ordered to pay restitution to the U.S. Postal Service in the amount of $5,675.00, and a mandatory special assessment fee of $400.
U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the United States Postal Inspection Service, along with assistance from the Louisiana State Police – Criminal Investigations Department, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, in investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward J. Rivera was in charge of the prosecution.
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