A woman from southern California pleaded guilty to defrauding more than $150 million to the United States Postal Service.
Lijuan “Angela” Chen, 51, of Walnutcarried out the scheme using fake postage stamps to ship tens of millions of packages, according to the US attorney’s office.
From November 2019 to May 2023the San Gabriel Valley woman and her accomplice, Chuanhua “Hugh” Hu, 51, owned and operated a package delivery business in the City of Industry.
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The company provided shipping services for China-based logistics companies.
To save money, Hu created fake postage stamps to send packages by printing duplicate and counterfeit Netstampswhich are stamps purchased online from third-party vendors and printed on sticker paper.
In November 2019, authorities became aware of the counterfeiting operation and Hu fled the country and moved to Chinawhere he continued to falsify mailings, authorities said.
Chen remained in the United States to supervise the warehouses that she and Hu used to send your packages during your operation.
In 2020, the couple began using counterfeit labels to send mail through the United States Postal Service.
Before organizing the transfer of the items to the Postal Service facilities, the operation contemplated receiving the packages from suppliers and they put fake shipping labels on them.
“Shipping labels were fraudulent and often included, among other warning signs, ‘Smart barcode data recycled from previously shipped packages“, according to court documents.
“Smart barcode data was used on some mailing labels to evidence the shipping payment required for the item shipped“added the document.
From January 2020 to May 2023, Chen and Hu mailed more than 34 million packages with postage and counterfeit shipping labels, authorities said.
With this plan, the authorities considered that the United States Postal Service was defrauded of more than $150 million dollars.
Chen declared guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of using false postage. The suspect has been in federal custody since her arrest in May 2023.
As part of his plea agreement, Chen also agreed to hand over funds that authorities seized from his bank accounts.insurance policies and real estate in several cities including Walnut, Chino, Chino Hills, South El Monte, Diamond Bar and West Covina.
Hu has not been arrested and is believed to reside in China. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, three counts of transmitting and possessing forged obligations of the United States and one count of forgery of postage stamps.
Chen’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 2. If found guilty, could face up to five years in federal prison on each charge.
This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation teams.
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