Former Boston Postal Employee Sentenced for Mail Theft
January 17, 2012
BOSTON – A Boston man and former postal employee was sentenced in federal court for stealing mail from his postal route.
Andrae Wilson, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Young to four months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. Wilson was also ordered to repay over $9,000 he spent using a stolen credit card. Wilson pleaded guilty to two counts of mail theft by a postal employee in October 2011.
Had the case proceeded to trial the Government’s evidence would have proven that the defendant was employed as a Part-Time-Flexible Letter Carrier in Roxbury beginning in November 2004. In January 2007, a Roxbury resident complained that a credit card had been stolen from her mail and used to purchase thousands of dollars of goods and services. All the purchases were made during the month of December 2006. After reviewing surveillance video from one of the stores where the stolen credit card was used, it was determined that Wilson was the one using the resident’s credit card. A review of delivery records indicated that Wilson was the mail carrier assigned to the route that included the resident’s address.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Rafael Medina, Acting Special Agent in Charge, United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Area Field Office, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey M. Cohen of Ortiz’s Public Corruption Unit.
Postal employee sentenced to prison for workers comp fraud
Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced that on Wednesday, January 18,2012, Karen A. Anderson-Bagshaw, 49, of Geneva, Ohio, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge James S. Gwin to twelve months and one day imprisonment followed by two years supervised re lease, and ordered to pay $71,887.50 in restitution to the Department of Labor. On October 19, 20 11, after a week long trial, a federal jury returned verdicts findi ng Anderson-Bagshaw guilty of one count of mail fraud and 13
counts of worker’s compensation fraud. The charges arose out of Anderson-Bagshaw’s employment as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service and worker’s compensation payments she received between June, 2002 and June, 2011. Read more
Postal Worker Gets Probation for stealing Vets prescriptions from mail
BOISE – Guy K. Dunne, 45, of Meridian, Idaho, was sentenced today to two years of probation for theft of mail matter by a postal employee, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge fined Dunne $3,000 and ordered him to pay $255.11 in restitution, and costs of drug testing and treatment. Dunne pleaded guilty on October 12, 2011, to count one of an information filed on September 27, 2011.
According to the plea agreement, Dunne was employed as a city carrier by the U.S. Postal Service from December 1997 to April 2011. Between January 21 and February 12, 2010, the Caldwell Post Office in Caldwell, Idaho, determined that several U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) medication packages were missing from the post office. In April 2010, video surveillance conducted by special agents of the Postal Service Office of Inspector General observed Dunne removing a VA medication package from a delivery cart and placing it under mail he was already carrying. Dunne was subsequently interviewed and admitted to the theft. According to the plea agreement, Dunne stole the medications to sustain his addiction to hydrocodone. Dunne admitted that over the prior year he had stolen an estimated 20 to 40 VA medication packages. The Postal Service identified missing packages intended for 29 recipients; Dunne has agreed to pay restitution for those packages.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General.
California Postal Worker Sentenced To Prison For Workers’ Compensation Fraud
Filed under: owcp, postal, postal news, press releases, usdoj
January 9,2012
FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that today Chief United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii sentenced Karina S. Beard, 44, of Turlock, to one year in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for four counts of mail fraud and two counts of federal workers’ compensation fraud. Beard was also ordered to pay $81,694 in restitution. Read more
Pennsylvania Postmaster Relief Found Guilty Of Misappropriating $2,600 In USPS Funds
PITTSBURGH, Pa – After a non-jury trial tried before Senior United States District Judge Maurice B. Cohill, Terri Oddo was found guilty of one count of misappropriation of postal funds, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.
Oddo, 43, of East Brady, Pennsylvania, was tried in Pittsburgh.
According to Assistant United States Attorney Paul E. Hull, who prosecuted the case, the evidence presented at trial established that Oddo was a postal employee at the East Brady, Pa., Post Office who embezzled $2,650.77 in postal service funds.
Judge Cohill scheduled sentencing for April 10, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. The law provides for a total sentence of one year in prison, a fine of $100,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based on the seriousness of the offense and the criminal history, if any, of the defendant.
Pending sentencing, Oddo remains free on bond.
The United States Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Terri Oddo.
source: USDOJ: US Attorney’s Office – Western District of Pennsylvania.
Two Alabama Postal Employees Indicted for Stealing, Delaying and Destroying Mail
BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury today indicted two U.S. Postal employees for several mail-related violations, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and Kenny Smith, assistant special agent in charge, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service.
The grand jury charged the two Postal Service employees in separate indictments with delaying mail delivery and mail theft by postal employees:
SUSAN KIRKLAND JACKSON, 50, of Glencoe, who worked as a mail carrier at the East Gadsden Post Office, was charged in a three-count indictment with delaying and destroying mail between Dec. 19, 2010, and Feb. 9, 2011.
SUE ANN MORIARTY, 31, of Harvest, who worked as a part-time mail carrier at the Huntsville Downtown Post Office, was charged in a four-count indictment with delaying and destroying mail between Dec. 14, 2010, to March 2, 2011.
The crimes of Theft of Mail Matter by a Postal Employee and Delay and Destruction of Mail are punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
“Businesses and citizens alike trust and rely on the efficient operation of the U.S. mail,” Vance said. “Postal employees and others who abuse this system do the country a great disservice. Anyone who steals from or disrupts delivery of U.S. mail in northern Alabama should expect to be prosecuted.”
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General investigated the cases. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank M. Salter is prosecuting the cases.
Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent and it will be the government’s burden to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
source: USDOJ: US Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Alabama.
DOJ Advises USPS To Resume FERS Payments Despite Overfunding Of $11.4 Billion
Filed under: postal, postal finances, postal news, usdoj, usps
According to USPS:
In June 2011, both the Postal Service and OPM agreed to seek a resolution surrounding the Postal Service’s’ decision to withhold payments of its FERS contributions by submitting a request for a legal opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice. Based on advice received from the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, in Quarter I, 2012, the Postal Service is expected to resume the regular biweekly payments for its FERS employer’s contributions as well as remit all previously withheld payments, including the $911 million accrued at September 30, 2011.
The Postal Service had overfunded its FERS obligations by $6.9 billion at September 30, 2009, and sought to apply that overfunded balance to amounts currently due for employer contributions. OPM’s latest calculation shows that the surplus has grown to $10.9 billion as of September 30, 2010, the latest actual data available, and it is projected to grow to $11.4 billion by September 30,2011, assuming all employer contributions are made. …however, it is OPM’s position that they are currently restricted by law from authorizing the return of those funds. As a result, various legislative initiatives have been introduced to resolve the matter.
Absent significant changes in the law, it is very likely that the Postal Service will default on the $5.5 billion prefunding payment to the PSRHBF due by November 18, 2011, and on the $5.6 billion prefunding payment due by September 30, 2012. Additionally, even if legislative changes defer or eliminate the $11.1 billion of PSRHBF prefunding payments currently due in 2012, the $15 billion debt ceiling will likely be reached in October 2012 when we are required to make a payment of approximately $1.3 billion to the DOL for workers’ compensation, because the Postal Service is expecting to resume payments to FERS, thereby exhausting the Postal Service’s external funding ability.
Postal Supervisor Pleads Guilty To Taking Bribes
Denny Robinson, the Vehicle Maintenance Supervisor at the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) Vehicle Maintenance Facility (“VMF”) in Detroit pleaded guilty today to taking bribes in exchange for directing repair and maintenance work to a private contractor United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today. McQuade was joined in the announcement by Joanne Yarbrough, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Major Fraud Investigations Division. Read more
Former Senior Exec For USPS Sentenced To Two Years in Prison for Bribery
Filed under: postal, postal managers, postal news, press releases, usdoj
Defendant Offered Contracts in Return For Money, Took $15,000 -
WASHINGTON – Ron Middlebrooks, a former senior executive with the U.S. Postal Service, was sentenced today to two years of incarceration on a bribery charge stemming from his acceptance of $15,000 in cash from a businessman he promised to reward with government contracts, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
Unbeknownst to Middlebrooks, the businessman was working with law enforcement.
Middlebrooks, 47, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, pled guilty in August 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to receipt of a bribe by a public official. The Honorable James E. Boasberg sentenced him today. Upon completion of his prison term, Middlebrooks will be placed on two years of supervised release. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to resign from the Postal Service. Read more
California Postmaster Arrested for stealing more than $23,000 from Rural Post Office
SACRAMENTO, CA (AP) – Federal prosecutors say they have arrested a postmaster for stealing more than $23,000 from a rural post office in Northern California.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento said 38-year-old Kristina Michelle Morris was arrested Thursday for felony embezzlement, theft of cash and theft of money orders. She was released on $10,000 bail and has not entered a plea.
Morris is suspected of stealing from the post office in Bieber, a Lassen County town about 100 miles east of Redding. Prosecutors say the thefts occurred between October 2010 and May.
She faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years and a $750,000 fine. Her public defender, Dennis Waks of Sacramento, says it’s too early in the legal proceedings to make a statement.