Investigative Case Highlights

As customers of the U.S. Postal Service and other large couriers, we enjoy protections against our items getting lost, damaged, or destroyed once we ship them off. But there are criminals who instead exploit these indemnity programs without so much as an afterthought. Sometimes, fraudsters go to extremes, like in this case our Office of Investigations recently closed with the help of our law enforcement partners.

Rebates aren’t really rebates when a seller is fixing prices behind your back to make it seem like you’re getting a deal when you’re actually paying more. The Postal Service fell victim to such a fraud some years ago with a diesel fuel and gasoline provider. And with a massive fleet of postal delivery vehicles, you can imagine the scope of the fraud.

We all saw it. We all felt it. The dry cleaners at the corner closed. That great coffee place down the street shut down. The same message plastered on window upon window: Closed due to COVID-19. Almost as quickly as the pandemic set in, the federal government stepped up to help people in need. The Small Business Administration (SBA) moved at lightning speed to launch pandemic relief programs under the CARES Act to help small businesses.

It started in June 2021: A suspicious package was on its way to southern New Jersey from sunny California. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service seized and searched the 8-lb. parcel, confirming suspicions that it contained illegal drugs. Postal inspectors immediately notified the USPS OIG — sometimes USPS employees get involved in drug trafficking schemes, and that’s something our special agents exclusively investigate.

Tap. Swipe. Beep. If you were standing right there, eyeing the registers, none of the ebbs and flows of customers buying luxury goods would seem unusual: high-end jewelry, designer handbags and shoes, the latest couture. But on the other side of security cameras, trained eyes were watching.