San Diego Man Sentenced For $5 Million Postage Fraud Scheme

SAN DIEGO, CA — A San Diego man who pleaded guilty to bilking the U.S. Postal Service out of about $5 million by tampering with postage meters was sentenced Monday to three years probation and ordered to forfeit more than $860,000 prosecutors say he made through the scheme.

Cuong H. Nguyen, 37, admitted to misrepresenting information on postage labels, including misstating the weight, size, destination and origin of 162,221 packages delivered between 2015 and 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Nguyen pleaded guilty in April to a federal conspiracy charge.

In his plea agreement, Nguyen admitted to digitally altering, counterfeiting, forging and tampering with various "postage evidencing systems," also known as postage meters, which allow mailers to buy and affix postage labels before depositing them in the mail.

He primarily used the postage evidencing system known as Click-N-Ship when sending packages of beverages and food products from his businesses in San Diego, according to the U.S Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors say Nguyen and others paid much less than was owed on the packages, resulting $5,127,712.88 in underpayment of postage.

— City News Service