A 28-year-old Houston man already free on a $600,000 bond in a murder case is now accused of running a nearly $24 million check-theft ring, by recruiting U.S. Postal Service mail carriers to steal checks off their own routes and selling the loot on Telegram.
Tryston Tremaine Vaughn, 28, is alleged to have recruited USPS mail carriers to steal checks on their delivery routes, the DOJ said in an August 25 statement.
Those checks were then allegedly bought from the postal workers by Vaughn and others, advertised on a Telegram channel called “slipsandchips,” and shipped to buyers across the country via FedEx.
Prosecutors say the haul totaled approximately $23,973,338.15. One stolen check was for $1.5 million.
And the man accused of running the operation was not locked in a cell while this was happening. He was walking around on bond after a fatal shooting.
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas returned a nine-count indictment charging five people:
- Tryston Tremaine Vaughn, 28 — alleged recruiter and ringleader
- Alyssa Nadine Bryant, 27 — accused of helping buy, sell, and ship the stolen checks
- Catherine Clauzelle Kilpatrick, 29 — USPS mail carrier (Greens North Station)
- Drakkor Jamar Alexander, 34 — USPS mail carrier (Spring Main Post Office)
- Malcolm Tiree Joubert, 35 — USPS mail carrier (Windmill Station)
All five face conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. The three carriers also face theft of mail matter by a postal employee.
If convicted, the fraud counts carry up to 30 years in federal prison and fines of up to $1 million. The mail-theft counts add up to five more years for the carriers.
According to the indictment, Vaughn recruited the carriers to pull checks out of the mail they were paid by taxpayers to deliver. He and Bryant then met the workers, bought the stolen checks, posted them for sale on Telegram, and mailed them to purchasers.
The charged conduct began around October 2022. Specific checks cited in the indictment include:
- A $1,517,875.27 BMO Bank check prosecutors say Joubert stole from the mail in May 2024
- A $79,894.60 Citibank check Vaughn allegedly mailed to a Telegram buyer in April 2024
- A $25,007.25 Stellar Bank check Vaughn and Bryant allegedly mailed in September 2024
Banks named in the case include Chase, Amegy, Citibank, BMO, and Stellar.
As of this week, four of the five defendants were in custody. Alexander remained at large. Kilpatrick appeared in federal court August 24 and pleaded not guilty. Reports indicated she could be released on an unsecured $50,000 bond.
Yes. A postal worker accused of feeding a multimillion-dollar theft ring, and the system is already talking about an unsecured bond.
And the story gets even more disturbing.
Vaughn is also charged in Fort Bend County with murder, according to Click2Houston.
Stafford police say that in March 2025 he went to a motel parking lot off the Southwest Freeway looking for someone he believed had stolen a $92,000 necklace.
Surveillance video, police say, shows him firing on a moving vehicle. The shots missed the intended target and killed 22-year-old Kerry Thomas, described as a bystander. Thomas’s family had moved to the Houston area from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Vaughn was arrested. He posted a $600,000 bond last May and walked free.
Then, according to federal prosecutors, the check pipeline kept moving.
This is Houston. This is Harris County’s culture of catch-and-release dressed up as “pretrial justice.” A man accused of gunning down a bystander over jewelry is given a six-figure ticket back onto the street, and federal prosecutors now say he was in the middle of a $24 million mail-theft conspiracy that used actual U.S. postal employees as the supply chain.
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