Investigative Case Highlights

Everybody loves free stuff, right? But what if it’s medical supplies you didn’t ask for and don’t actually need? And what if a company keeps sending you stuff after you ask it to stop? Oh — one little detail: it’s not free and you’re left footing part of the bill. That’s what fueled a health care fraud investigation back in 2015. It started when two insurance carriers filed complaints with a federal watchdog, alleging a medical equipment company was inappropriately billing patients

By the time her boyfriend planted the idea, she’d worked at the Postal Service long enough to know exactly what envelopes to look for. She showed up to work each day playing the part so well, no one suspected a thing. But in just a few months, she managed to steal more than $24 million in checks, making this the largest mail theft conspiracy in the history of the Western District of North Carolina.

Imagine someone starts a job and less than two months later jumps on a gravy train to ride out a supposed ankle injury on the Postal Service's dime. That’s what one Postal Service employee in Ohio did recently, and it’s one of the reasons the USPS OIG’s work to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse is as vital as ever. A woman joined the Postal Service in June 2020 as a tractor trailer operator, and 54 days later filed a traumatic injury claim with the Department of Labor Office of Workers’

It began with an unintended discovery: A man in southern California filed an indemnity claim with the Postal Service after he sent a Priority Mail parcel that was never delivered. He declared, by mistake, the value lost was $100 when it was actually $5. When the Postal Service reimbursed him without question, a lightbulb went off in his head and thus ensued a $2.3 million indemnity fraud scheme. The Postal Service didn’t detect the fraud — how was it our special agents cracked the case?

A postmaster at a post office in Connecticut is serving a four-year prison sentence after he defrauded the Postal Service of over $930,000. The scheme started in 2022, when the postmaster approached a local repair shop manager hinting about potential bribe payments in exchange for a large increase in vehicle repair work. The manager for the USPS vendor accepted and the postmaster started bringing in significant towing and repair business while the vendor falsely raised the expense amounts.