Former Cape Coral resident Devin Ryan Maresca will serve a three-year federal prison sentence for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Maresca, 33, was sentenced Tuesday by Senior U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington. As part of his sentence, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $74,700, which were the proceeds of Maresca’s mail fraud scheme.
Maresca was found guilty following a three-day trial on August 23. Prior to his conviction, Maresca had sought the New Castle mayoral seat as a write-in independent candidate in the November election.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Maresca filed more than 2,200 fraudulent indemnity claims to the United States Postal Service (USPS) claiming that Priority Mail packages that he had mailed or received were damaged while living in Cape Coral.
Maresca would fraudulently use his mother, father, and brother’s name to submit most of the claims.
Further, Maresca would forge his family members’ signatures on the backs of USPS claims checks to deposit them into a bank account he controlled. The checks were mailed to UPS Store private mailboxes and Pak-Mail Store mailboxes that Maresca had opened in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Punta Gorda.
Maresca’s fraud scheme caused the USPS to issue more than $100,000 in claims checks. Internet addresses, bank, and email records, along with USPS data, linked Maresca to the fraudulent claims.
In December 2021, a United States Postal Inspector and USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) Special Agent interviewed Maresca at his home in New Castle in western Pennsylvania. During the interview, Maresca admitted to submitting more than 2,200 fraudulent claims and forging his family members’ signatures on USPS indemnity checks.
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