Lijuan “Angela” Chen, a 50-year-old woman from Inland Empire, has been accused of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of possession and use of counterfeit postage. She faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison if convicted.

Stealing from the Post Office

Chen took over the operations of her business after her husband was questioned by Postal inspectors in November 2019 and left for China two days later. The company provides discounted USPS rates for their shipping and postage services to other businesses that need to mail their products within the U.S.

The businesses that contracted with her would send their parcels to Chen's company, and they would then apply shipping labels and transfer the packages to USPS facilities so that they could be shipped domestically. Chen's shipping labels are suspected to be fraudulent because they include intelligent barcode data from previously mailed items, and their meter numbers are related to postage meters discontinued in 2020.

Since November 2022, it is suspected that Chen and her employees shipped over 9 million mail parcels using counterfeit postage, robbing the USPS of over $60 million.

Hiring an Experienced Defense Attorney

According to the USPS and the United States Postal Inspection Services, the majority of the postage Chen's company has used is counterfeit postage. As a skilled criminal defense attorney, Attorney Vitaly Sigal of Sigal Law Group would work tirelessly to ensure the best possible outcome for your case. For instance, if he were involved in this case, he would be contacting witnesses and scouring for evidence to prove that Chen had no idea of the counterfeit postage or that someone else had placed it in their supplies. Lack of knowledge is rarely a solid defense, but it is a path to finding out what happened and who is to blame.

Are you or someone you love in need of a solid criminal defense? Call (818) 325-0579 today for a free consultation.