Internal derangement and rotator cuff tears of the right and left shoulders, lumbosacral strain, and dorsal muscle strain of the back resulting from an injury — any medical doctor would declare this patient unable to perform labor-intensive work, especially that of a Postal Service employee. Add to that PTSD, depression, and chronic pain stemming from the injury and it’s a case the Office of Workers’ Compensation would approve for compensation benefits in a heartbeat.

That’s what happened in September 2000: A rural mail carrier in the Tampa, FL, region suffered an injury while at work. Her doctor considered her totally disabled and she filed for benefits with the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Program (DOL OWCP). In addition to medical care, she sought mental health treatment for anxiety and depression, which she said resulted from the ailments and how they had curtailed her once full, active life.

Her story to her health care providers was consistent: She was in so much pain she could hardly move around or do mundane things like shower or household chores. She was so depressed she could hardly get out of bed most days, which reduced her social life to next to nothing. Medications, physical therapy, medical devices, and other treatments would follow, but none potent enough to deter the pain and hardship. 

The employee stayed on USPS’s rolls receiving workers’ comp payments for 14 years, which cost the agency more than $328,000 in benefits plus almost $195,000 in medical compensation. On paper, she seemed to be a long-term victim of workplace injuries, but in May 2014, something about this case caught the attention of one of our special agents. After spotting anomalies in the data, our special agents moved to confirm their suspicions in the field.

Stacked against years’ worth of medical and DOL OWCP documentation supporting the employee’s claims were a few weeks of direct observation, which showed she was far from disabled. Instead, she was active and engaged in vigorous physical activity hours at a time — whether hitting the gym each day, carrying and rearranging boxes in the garage, or even planting trees in the yard. Yet the employee was never seen wearing pain patches or a medical device, or exhibiting a lack of mobility or signs of pain or discomfort. As for the reclusive life she said she lived? Also a farce: there was evidence of her online enjoying a healthy and active social life with outtings at night and parties. 

When she finally spoke with our special agents, the litany of fabrications continued: She claimed that working at the Postal Service was worse than a war she survived in another country years earlier. She was upset at DOL OWCP’s denying her medications, massages, and other treatment to which she felt entitled. And to add insult to supposed injury, she complained that the government bureaucracy was directly adding to her hardships.

The lies in her declarations went further: DOL OWCP requires claimants to report any improvements in health and any outside employment or income. She suppressed both sets of information for years while receiving rent from a condo she owned.

Our special agents arrested the employee in March 2022 and the Postal Service promptly removed her from the books. She went to trial and a jury found her guilty of all four counts of mail fraud. She asked the court to postpone her sentencing so she could sell the condo to prepare for the restitution she would be ordered to pay, but that never came to be. This January, she was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay back almost $650,000 to the Postal Service. And thanks to our agents’ good work, this investigation saved USPS over $1.1 million in future fraudulent payments. 

If you suspect or know of Postal Service employees who exploit the workers’ compensation program, please report it to our Hotline.

For further reading:

Department of Justice (via uspsoig.gov), Jury Convicts Tampa Woman Of Defrauding Government Of Federal Benefits