Ex-Postal Worker Gets 2 Years in $413,000 Money Order Theft

A former Sherman Oaks postal worker was sentenced to two years in prison Monday for stealing blank money orders, then cashing them for more than $400,000 in what authorities have called the largest such theft in U.S. Postal Service history.

Abraham Rothman, 68, who had pleaded guilty last August to one count of conspiracy and four counts of selling and conveying government property without authority, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima to pay back the $413,000 he had stolen, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian Hennigan.

The scheme involved another postal worker, Gilbert Capaldo, 43, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and 25 counts of selling and conveying government property earlier this month. He is to be sentenced Jan. 9, Hennigan said.

Aided Authorities

Because Rothman agreed to cooperate with authorities in the investigation, he was not charged with as many counts of theft as Capaldo, Hennigan said.

“He confessed to the entire scheme and laid it out for us,” Hennigan said. “The fact that the man was 68 and in poor health and had cooperated with the government went to his benefit” in the prison sentence.

Hennigan said that from July, 1986, to July, 1987, Capaldo cashed about 600 money orders, most of them made out in Rothman’s name in amounts of about $700.

Capaldo and Rothman were apprehended when post office authorities discovered several books of money orders missing and began watching employees.

Rothman had worked as a window clerk for the U.S. Postal Service for 12 years before he retired in 1986, Hennigan said.

“From all accounts, he just decided to retire and have a big fling,” Hennigan said.