Indian Americans accused of defrauding the US $ 16 million postal service

WASHINGTON: Two American Indians, owners of a wholesale business in the Chicago suburbs, have been accused today of having defrauded the US postal service of the United States. less $ 16 million.

Yogesh Patel and Arvind Lakkamsani, owner and operator of Prodigy Mailing Services, defrauded USPS by falsifying documents and secretly using an official date stamp to fraudulently authenticate the postage payment of over 80 million shipments. , according to criminal charges filed by the prosecutor's office. in Chicago.

According to the accusations, Patel and Lakkamsani have scrambled with a third defendant, David Gargano, for the USPS to fraudulently deliver numerous unpaid shipments.

The trio affixed the signature of a USPS employee on the verification forms and secretly used an official postal service date stamp to falsely believe that the clerk had a postage, according to the charges.

From 2010 to 2015, the accused caused a loss to the postal service of at least $ 16 million, according to the charges.

All three accused – Patel, 58, of Orlando, Florida, Lakkamsani, 57, of Northbrook, Ill., And Gargano, 51, of Barrington, Ill. – have been charged with a charge of mail fraud . The indictments before the US District Court in Chicago have not yet been scheduled, according to a press release.

According to the charges, Direct Mail Resources Inc., owned by Gargano and based in Illinois, has collected fees to match customers looking to make bulk shipments with companies that could perform such services, such as Prodigy. Gargano referred two energy companies to Prodigy for bulk shipping services.

Both energy companies have provided millions of dollars to the defendants to pay the postage costs for the bulk mailings of the companies. Instead of using these funds to pay for postage, the defendants shared the money between themselves and used it for their own benefit, according to the charges.

Federal prosecutors alleged that the defendants made the shipments but kept the energy companies' postage without paying postage to the postal service.

Patel and Lakkamsani fraudulently maintained the key of a postal service mail unit, located inside Prodigy's facilities, and used the key to secretly access a date stamp without the knowledge or knowledge USPS approval.

By forging the clerk's signature and fraudulently stamping the mailings, the two American Indians mistakenly believed that the verification forms – which indicated the amount of postage paid for bulk mailings – were authentic and that the postage had been properly paid. .