Federal jury convicts former Columbus mail carrier in tax-fraud scheme

Another co-conspirator has been found guilty in an area scheme in which postal workers assisted in filing and collecting fraudulent tax returns involving millions of dollars.

A Columbus jury found former postal worker Harold Coley guilty on federal charges of conspiring to steal identities, mail fraud and mail embezzlement.

U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land set Coley’s sentencing for Dec. 19.

Authorities said Coley, 52, worked a Columbus mail route. In 2012, Keshia Lanier recruited him to collect addresses she used to file false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. Some of the addresses were fabricated, and others were for vacant buildings, investigators said.

Lanier got the identities she used from Tamika Floyd, who worked for the Alabama Department of Public Health. Most of the names were 16- and 17-year-olds.

Lanier and her cohorts had the IRS mail refund checks to the addresses Coley provided, and paid him cash to collect the refunds for them. They gathered around 1,600 checks totaling more than $2.5 million.

Lanier and Floyd already have been sentenced to federal prison for their part in the scheme.

Coley faces up to 10 years in prison for conspiracy, 20 years in prison for each count of mail fraud and five years in prison for each count of embezzling mail.

This story was originally published September 12, 2017 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Federal jury convicts former Columbus mail carrier in tax-fraud scheme."