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