ST. LOUIS - A St. Louis-area man has been sentenced to federal prison for leading a $1.2 million fraud scheme that involved stolen checks from mail.

A federal judge has sentenced Malik Jones, 28, of Berkeley, Missouri, to three years and six months behind bars. He previously pleaded guilty to federal charges of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors say Jones was involved in "every step" of a scheme to steal checks from mail and commit fraud with those checks from March 2022 to October 2023, according to a sentencing memo.

In March 2022, Jones bought a stolen “arrow key,” which allows access to U.S. Postal Service mail collection boxes, from mail carrier Cambria M. Hopkins, who pleaded guilty to similar charges last month.

With the key, Jones then recruited others to ste

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