BOSTON – A former U.S. Postal Service employee was sentenced yesterday for fraudulently obtaining worker’s compensation for medical travel.

Joseph Bouchard, 67, of Georgetown, Mass. was sentenced by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler to six months’ probation and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 and restitution of $50,000.  In June 2016, Bouchard pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in obtaining federal employee compensation.

From January 1986 to December 2009, Bouchard was employed as a letter carrier in Reading, Mass.  As a civilian employee of the federal government, Bouchard was entitled to obtain reimbursement for medical travel after sustaining an injury while working in his official capacity.  From 2008 to 2014, while Bouchard was on medical leave, he submitted dozens of travel vouchers to fitness centers in Lexington, Lynnfield and Bedford for dates when he did not actually use those gyms or used a different gym of closer proximity.  During an interview with federal agents in April 2016, Bouchard admitted that he submitted the false claims intentionally and that he was upset with the Postal Service because of the hassles he encountered while seeking accommodations for his injury.  Bouchard’s fraudulent submissions totaled approximately $50,000.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Eileen Neff, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General in Boston, made the announcement.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia M. Carris of Ortiz’s Public Corruption Unit.