MADISON, WIS. –Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Megan Torrez, 45, Alma, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 3-years of federal probation for misappropriation of postal funds.  Torrez was also ordered to pay $26,930.70 in restitution to the United States Postal Service.

Torrez was employed by the U. S. Postal Service in June 2021, as a Postal Support Employee in Nelson, Wisconsin.  Her assigned duties included conducting postal business with the public and performing financial accounting functions to report the sales of postage, money orders and other items.  When postage and money order stock were sold, she was responsible for collecting money from those sales and remitting that money to the bank.  Between August 2021 and February 2022, Torrez manipulated postal funds accessible to her in her position at the Nelson Post Office by issuing postal money orders to herself and family members and paying with personal checks that she admitted had insufficient funds to clear her bank. Postal money orders may only be purchased with cash, debit card, or traveler’s check, and no personal checks are accepted by the Postal Service.

In January 2022, the Office of Inspector General received information about the checks written by Torrez to the Postal Service that were returned as “non-sufficient funds.” At the time of their investigation, thirty-two checks were outstanding for over $26,000 in postal money orders.  The money orders that Torrez issued to herself and her family were used to pay for her family’s personal expenses.  Torrez claimed that her decision to use postal funds to pay for her family’s bills was out of desperation when her husband lost his job during the pandemic. 

The charge against Torrez was the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Anderson prosecuted this case.