Oakdale Man Sentenced to 70 Months for Stealing Mail, Financial Information

An Oakdale man has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for using personal and financial information in stolen mail to tap into people's bank accounts.

Forty-one-year-old Ricky Mariano, also known as Ricky Scharrer, was sentenced Wednesday to 70 months in federal prison.

Authorities say Mariano stole mail from curbside mailboxes in Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties between July 2010 and July 2011. Mariano also destroyed blue roadside collection boxes to access the mail inside, according to a federal indictment and evidence presented at trial.

Authorities say Mariano and several others took personal information, as well as checks and credit cards, in order to access money in people's bank accounts. In a process called check washing, the group used chemicals to erase certain details from checks while keeping other information. They then used the checks at retail stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Mariano was sentenced on two counts of theft and receipt of stolen mail; two counts of destruction of letter boxes; one count of bank fraud; one count of bank fraud conspiracy; and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Nine co-defendants ranging in age from 19 to 47 were sentenced in connection with the case earlier this year.