A Walnut woman faces up to 10 years in federal prison after she pleaded guilty this week to defrauding the United States Postal Service out of more than $150 million by affixing counterfeit stamps to packages shipped across the country, authorities said.
Lijuan “Angela” Chen, 51, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of use of counterfeit storage, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Ciaran McEvoy said. Each count carries a possible maximum sentence of five years.
Chen is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Aug. 2.
From at least November 2019 to May 2023, Chen and co-defendant CHuanhua “Hugh” Hu, 51, owned and operated a shipping business in the City of Industry, which provided services for China-based logistics businesses, prosecutors said in a news release.
To avoid the cost of postage, Hu created counterfeit postage “by printing duplicate and counterfeit Netstamps – stamps that may be purchased online from third-party vendors and printed onto adhesive paper,” McEvoy said.
The pair would receive parcels from China-based vendors, apply shipping labels showing that postage had been paid and then had the parcels transferred to USPS facilities to be shipped, the release said.
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The labels included, “among other red flags, ‘intelligent barcode data’ recycled from previously mailed packages,” according to court documents.
In all, federal authorities said the pair mailed more than 34 million parcels with counterfeit postage, an approximately $150 million loss for the U.S. Postal Service.
Hu fled the United States to China in November 2019 after catching wind that law enforcement was investigating his use of counterfeit postage, McEvoy said. While in China, Hu used a computer program for fabricating counterfeit postage shipping labels while Chen remained in the U.S. and managed the warehouses the pair used to ship mail, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Hu remains a fugitive in China, McEvoy said. Hu has been charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, three counts of passing and possessing counterfeit obligations of the United States and one count of forging and counterfeiting postage stamps.
As part of the plea agreement, Chen agreed to forfeit money that law enforcement seized from her bank accounts, insurance policies and real estate in several cities in the San Gabriel Valley as well as in Chino and Chino Hills, the spokesman said.