Investigative Case Highlights

A complaint to our OIG Hotline alleged checks mailed to businesses in New York City’s financial district were never delivered and were instead negotiated by unknown third parties. Our data analytics showed the complaint wasn’t an isolated incident; in fact, there were many similar complaints for that area. Partnering with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, FBI, and NYPD, our special agents found a suspect: a mail handler at a post office in the district.

Our Data Analytics team develops cutting-edge tools our Office of Investigations uses to proactively identify postal crime. Leveraging data analytics and more recently AI, these tools help special agents pinpoint when and where crimes are happening in the postal system. This investigation is a prime example.

Postal Service contracts can be complex. EMCOR, a major Postal Service contractor, assigns service calls to subsidiaries that perform work for the agency — a good part of it maintenance and repairs at postal facilities. These subsidiaries may subcontract the work with up to a 10 percent markup, provided they disclose it. But that doesn’t always happen, and that’s where our contract fraud investigators come in.

A mail carrier tried bankrolling his drug addiction by stealing mail, but by the time he wanted out of the wrong crowd he’d gotten into, it was too late. The case was complex enough that it took seven law enforcement agencies and two of our investigative field offices to bring the operation down.

Being short on cash is tough — but turning to crime for income is never the answer. A mail processing clerk in South Carolina recently learned this lesson the hard way.