Uncovering a Conspiracy to Defraud USPS Customers
The U.S. Postal Service seeks to hire honest, hardworking people, but sometimes a few bad apples manage to find their way in. When you consider the vast workforce that is the Postal Service (over 635,000 employees as of 2022), it becomes apparent that cases where postal employees commit crimes are few. Even rarer are cases where they collude with each other to defraud USPS and its customers.
A recently closed investigation involved three postal employees who took advantage of customers on their delivery routes. The case came to our criminal investigators in December 2019, when the Lathrup Village Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service referred several complaints of mail theft, specifically credit cards, in Michigan’s 48076 delivery zone. USPS OIG special agents quickly identified a city carrier who then admitted to stealing credit cards for a non-employee co-conspirator.
As the investigation continued, agents identified additional complaints of missing mail in a nearby city. Further investigation revealed a city carrier assistant stealing from the mail, who later admitted to working with the same non-employee co-conspirator.
The following June, our special agents, Postal Inspectors, and officials from several state and local agencies conducted a search warrant at the co-conspirator’s residence. Among the evidence they found was $3,200 in cash, 200 cellphones with phone numbers affixed to their exterior, written names of corresponding personally identifiable information (PII), and 25 credit, gift and stored-value cards not bearing the co-conspirator’s name. Evidence obtained in the search led to the identification of an additional postal co-worker involved in the thefts. That employee also admitted to stealing mail and giving it to the co-conspirator for payment.
Investigators eventually discovered further aggravating conduct, including the discovery that at least one employee provided the co-conspirator with arrow keys, which are used to open blue USPS collection boxes. This allowed him to access mail that wasn’t part of their delivery routes.
The co-conspirator was arrested and charged with aggravated identify theft, mail theft, and wire fraud. However, he failed to appear at a pretrial hearing, so agents conducted another search warrant at his last known residence in Detroit. There, they found a trove of further incriminating evidence: several firearms, postal customers’ PII, unemployment benefits mail from multiple states, fraudulent identification cards, and a credit card embosser.
Ultimately, the fugitive was located by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Apprehension team in California. During the arrest, he was in possession of a Chevy Camaro, a diamond cluster watch valued at $80,000, a diamond link chain valued at over $100,000, four cell phones, multiple credit cards and state-issued unemployment insurance agency debit cards in different names, a fraudulent state-issued identification card, and $2,000 in cash.
The three postal employees resigned from the Postal Service and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal mail matter. The non-employee co-conspirator also pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $740,000 in restitution. For their part, each former employee was sentenced to 36 months of supervised release and ordered to pay up to $63,700 in restitution.
Postal employees are the backbone of the trust Americans place in the Postal Service. Our agency will safeguard that trust by bringing those who seek to profit through illegal means to justice. If you know or suspect a postal employee or contractor of theft, fraud or misconduct, please report it to our Hotline.
For further reading:
Department of Justice (via uspsoig.gov), Farmington Hills Resident Sentenced in Pandemic Fraud and Credit Card Scheme