Investigative News Releases

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – LEON TINSON, age 48, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was indicted on September 15, 2022 for Theft of Mail by a Postal Service Employee in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1709. According to the indictment, on or about April 14, 2022, TINSON stole, abstracted, and removed the contents of a letter entrusted to him and which came into his possession intended to be conveyed by mail, while performing his assigned duties as an employee of the United States Postal...

ABINGDON, Va. – A Smyth County, Virginia man, who ordered approximately 30,000 fentanyl pills from California and sold them in Southwest Virginia, was sentenced today to 42 months in federal prison. He will also pay the United States a $50,000 monetary judgement. Zachary Ryan Hutton, 21, of Marion, Virginia, pleaded guilty in March 2022 to knowingly possessing with the intent to distribute, as well as distributing, 400 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing fentanyl. According to...

RALEIGH, N.C. – Yesterday, a jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina found defendants Chad Cline and BJ Trucking Company, Inc. liable for $1,679,086 worth of unauthorized fuel purchases under United States Postal Service contracts, in violation of the False Claims Act. The jury also found that while BJ Trucking was insolvent and owed a substantial debt to the United States, it transferred $439,015 to company insiders—including to Defendant Doug Cline—in violation of the Federal Debt...

NEWARK, N.J. – A Hudson County, New Jersey, woman today admitted stealing numerous cell phones from mail that passed through the United States post office where she was employed, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, announced. Nyasia Hutchinson, 26, of Jersey City, New Jersey, pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez to an information charging her with one count of theft of mail by a postal employee. U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the U...

A former executive of Contech Engineered Solutions LLC was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment yesterday in New Bern, North Carolina, for his participation in bid-rigging and fraud schemes targeting the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Executive Special Agent in Charge Kenneth Cleevely of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG) said “The USPS-OIG will vigorously investigate those who would engage in harmful anticompetitive practices, and we continue