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
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
Texas letter carrier gets prison and must pay $244,320 for theft of mail
Filed under: letter carriers, postal, postal news, press releases
Dallas, Texas letter carrier pleaded guilty to 86 Treasury checks from the mail at the Juanita Craft Station, with an intended loss of of $323,742.
The following is a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas:
DALLAS, Texas — At a sentencing hearing held yesterday afternoon, Tobian McRuffin, of Glenn Heights, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis to 37 months in prison, following his guilty plea in January 2011 to one count of theft of mail matter by a postal service employee, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Judge Solis also ordered that McRuffin pay $244,320 in restitution and surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on June 15, 2011.
McRuffin’s co-defendant, Roscoe Hill, aka “Peco,” of Dallas, pleaded guilty in January 2011 to one count of possessing stolen mail. He remains on bond; a sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to plea documents filed in the case, in April 2008, while he worked for the U.S. Postal Service as a letter carrier out of the Juanita Craft Postal Station in Dallas, McRuffin stole three U.S. Treasury checks from the mail. Also, in April 2008, Hill possessed eight U.S. Treasury checks, totaling more than $38,000, which he knew had been stolen from the U.S. mail.
According to testimony at yesterday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Solis held McRuffin responsible for stealing 86 Treasury checks from the mail at the Juanita Craft Station, with an intended loss of $323,742.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service – Office of the Inspector General.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen P. Fahey was in charge of the prosecution.
Former Maryland Letter Carrier Convicted Of Destroying Mail
Filed under: legal cases, postal, postal news, press releases, usdoj
The following is a press release from U.S. Attorney’s Office, Maryland
Greenbelt, Maryland – A federal jury convicted Warren Christopher Bradford, age 41, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, late yesterday of destroying mail he was entrusted to deliver as a Postal Service letter carrier.
The conviction was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Joanne Yarbrough of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General; and Interim Chief Mark Magaw of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
According to Joanne Yarbrough, Special Agent in Charge of the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General, “The overwhelming majority of postal employees work very conscientiously to move the nation’s mail – approximately 171 billion pieces of mail each year – to its proper destination. It is a responsibility they take very seriously. Unfortunately, there are a few postal employees, very few, who abuse the public trust placed in them, but successful prosecutions are a significant victory against offenders. I appreciate the work and partnership of the U.S. Attorney’s Office with these investigations. The American public should remain confident that the majority of the employees of the Postal Service are hard-working and continue to maintain the trust and integrity of the Postal Service.”
According to evidence presented during the three day trial, Bradford was a 15-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service assigned as a letter carrier to the Capitol Heights Post Office in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The evidence showed that beginning in June 2009, customers living along Bradford’s postal route began reporting that they were not receiving mail for days at a time. On September 21, 2009, a citizen called 911 after witnessing a Postal Service employee unloading several trays full of mail from a Postal Service vehicle and discarding them at a secluded location in Capitol Heights. The Prince George’s County Police Officer who responded to the call discovered the three trays of undelivered mail the caller had seen the carrier unload as well as a large amount of burned mail spread across the wooded lot. That officer notified a local Post Office, whose supervisory employees responded to the scene along with agents of the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General. There, postal officials recovered mail from Bradford’s route bearing postmarks dating back to June 2009. Postal officials located Bradford at approximately 3:00 p.m. when he returned to the burn site in his postal truck, which still carried nearly all of his route’s mail for that day.
Bradford faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., has scheduled sentencing for May 25, 2011 at 9 a.m.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General and the Prince George’s County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Adam K. Ake, who is prosecuting the case
Postal Employee Indicted For Cashing More Than $41,000 In Money Orders
Press Release from US Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota
A United States Postal Service (“USPS”) employee was indicted in federal court for allegedly stealing and cashing approximately 80 money orders totaling more than $41,000 for her personal use. The indictment, which was filed with the U.S. District Court earlier today, charges Linda Kay Johnson, age 60, of Lewisville, with one count of fraudulently issuing money orders and one count of false entries and reports of money.
The indictment alleges Johnson issued the money orders from August 9, 2008, through December 4, 2008. In addition, it alleges she deceived the USPS by making false entries in the office books to cover up the loss.
If convicted, Johnson faces a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the false entries count and five years on the fraudulently issuing money orders count. All sentences are determined by a federal district court judge. This case is the result of an investigation by the U.S. Postal Service-Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Erika R. Mozangue.
An indictment is a determination by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe that offenses have been
committed by a defendant. A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven
guilty at trial.
Former New York Postal Employee Is Sentenced For Delay Or Destruction of the Mail
The office U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York issued the following press release:
Feb. 17, 2010
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Glen J. Helmer, 40, of Waterloo, New York, who, in November 2009, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of delay or destruction of mail by a United States Postal Service employee, was sentenced yesterday to 3 years probation and $5,000 restitution by United States District Judge David. G. Larimer, U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter of the Western District of New York announced.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who handled the case, stated that in August 2008, agents from the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General received information that the defendant, a rural route carrier for the United States Postal Service, failed to deliver business and political mailings to the residences on his route. The defendant will be required to pay restitution to the entities and individuals who paid for the business and political mailings.
The sentence was the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General under the direction of Northeast Area Special Agent in Charge Jane Hughes and Northeast Area Deputy Special Agent in Charge Mark Niro .
California Postal Supervisor Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement And Theft Charges
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that AUDRY MAE SIMMONS, 57, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty today to embezzlement and theft charges before United States Magistrate Judge Dale A. Drozd.
This case is the product of an investigation by the United States Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General.
According to Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Rodriguez, who is prosecuting the case, between November 1, 2008 and January 16, 2009, SIMMONS stole the cash reserve of the Perkins Station Post Office, located at 9500 Kiefer Blvd., in Sacramento. The cash reserve was entrusted to SIMMONS in order for her to provide change to counter postal clerks she supervised. SIMMONS incrementally stole the cash reserve, totaling $3,999.50, and then falsified documents to cover her theft and embezzlement. This morning SIMMONS admitted that from early November 2008 through January 2009 she used the U.S. currency in the cash reserve to make personal expenditures and to pay non-governmental expenses. SIMMONS had been employed by the U.S. Post Office since October 1986 and, at the time of her theft,
SIMMONS was the Customer Services Supervisor of Sacramento’s Perkins Station Post Office.
SIMMONS was convicted of one misdemeanor count of theft and one misdemeanor count of embezzlement of postal funds during the performance of her duties. She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 2, 2010. The maximum penalty for each offense is one year in prison, a one-year term of supervised release, and a fine of up to $100,000. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.
source: U.S. Attorney’s Office